The Trojans put up a fight without JuJu Watkins but Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong were just too good.
UConn women’s basketball is heading to Tampa after beating the top-seeded USC Trojans 78-64 in the Elite Eight at Spokane Arena on Monday night. This will be the Huskies’ 16th trip to the Final Four in the last 17 tournaments.
Despite being without superstar JuJu Watkins, USC didn’t go down without a fight. The Trojans pulled within five entering the fourth quarter but UConn held them off over the final 10 minutes.
Paige Bueckers was sensational once again, finishing with 31 points while Sarah Strong also had a monster game with 22 points and 17 rebounds.
Everyone else chipped in. Kaitlyn Chen added 15 points while Azzi Fudd shrugged off an 0-9 start from the field and put up eight points in the fourth quarter. Aubrey Griffin gave the team eight good minutes in the final period while KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade made a few key plays along the way as well.
UConn’s defense held USC to just a 3-13 day from three and won the points off turnover battle 20-12 despite only having three more giveaways.
UConn settled for too many contest looks early on and made just two of its initial nine shots. Strong kept the Huskies afloat early by scoring their first eight points before the offense settled in. USC pulled off a 10-0 run to go ahead 11-5, only for UConn to answer with a 9-0 burst at the end of the opening quarter.
That gave the Huskies the lead for good. The Trojans had a chance to stay close late in the second quarter when they cut the deficit to five with under two minutes to go. They had multiple chances to pull within a single possession but couldn’t convert and from there, UConn scored 11 of the final 13 points of the half. The Huskies took a 14-point lead into the locker room.
They extended the gap to as many as 19 before USC roared back. The Trojans found life with 21 points in the third quarter — including the final 11 — and kept UConn off the scoreboard for the last 4:39. The Huskies’ lead dwindled to just five entering the final quarter.
On their first possession of the fourth, Fudd drilled her first three to push the lead back to eight. After USC hit a pair of free throws, Bueckers stepped up with back-to-back baskets to extend the cushion back to double-digits. The Trojans never got closer than nine the rest of the way as UConn came out with a 14-point victory.
The Huskies advance to their 24th Final Four in program history, where they’ll take on No. 1 overall seed UCLA in the national semifinal. They’ll be the late game in Tampa on Friday.