UConn, Iowa claim Final Four spots
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Flau’jae Johnson defends character of Angel Reese
After a tough loss to Iowa in the Elite Eight, Flau’Jae Johnson defends the character of her teammate Angel Reese.
The women’s NCAA tournament entered the last day of the Elite Eight with star-studded matchups all night.
In the first game, Caitlin Clark and No. 1 Iowa reached the Final Four for a second consecutive season, trampling on Angel Reese and defending champion LSU and avenging their loss in last year’s national championship game. Clark did it all for the Hawkeyes, scoring 41 points, including 9-of-20 from 3-point range, and added 12 assists and seven rebounds.
Iowa will face Paige Bueckers and No. 3 UConn in the national semifinals on Friday as No. 3 Connecticut toppled No. 1 Southern California 80-73 to return to the Final Four. The Huskies’ Paige Bueckers had her career-high seventh straight 20-point game, finishing with 28 points and 10 rebounds.
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Here is the full schedule for Monday night’s NCAA women’s tournament games. All games air on ESPN.
Now is the time for X-factors to step up, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.
No. 1 Southern California went on an 11-3 run to close out the third quarter and close No. 3 Connecticut’s lead to 55-51. Senior guard Kayla Padilla scored her first points of the game with a three-point bucket as time expired.
The shot was in response to Ice Brady’s trey, which was the freshman forward’s sixth three-point shot of the entire season. The shot snapped an 8-0 run from USC, which was surging back after Connecticut went up by 12, its largest lead of the game.
Paige Bueckers has 19 points and nine rebounds for Connecticut. McKenzie Forbes has 18 points for the Trojans. JuJu Watkins only had three points in the period to bring her scoring total to 16. She also has nine boards.
In the second quarter, JuJu Watkins passed Tina Hutchinson’s 898 points to have the most points by a freshman in a single season in women’s college basketball history.
She helped No. 1 seed Southern California finish the period on a 6-0 run to go into the halftime break tied at 33 against the No. 3 UConn Huskies.
Connecticut surged with eight straight points to take its first lead and was up by as many as six points. Then Watkins made her record-breaking three-point shot at the top of the arc to swing momentum back in the Trojans’ direction.
Paige Bueckers has 15 points and four assists for the Huskies. Watkins has 13 points and four rebounds. She’s also committed three turnovers. — Victoria Hernandez
The women’s Final Four is almost set.
Iowa defeated LSU, the defending champions, on Monday night and will join South Carolina and NC State in Cleveland. The Final Four is Friday.
The overall No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks will play the NC State Wolfpack, in their first Final Four since 1998, in the first game at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The Iowa Hawkeyes will play the winner of Southern California vs.
Read More: UConn, Iowa claim Final Four spots 2024-04-02 03:33:09