Death, Taxes and UConn in the Final Four 

Entering the Elite Eight, the UConn Huskies (35-3) had earned all 34 of their wins in games where they led entering the fourth quarter. After a 78-64 win over the top-seeded USC Trojans (31-4), the Huskies improved to 35-0 on the season when carrying a lead into the final quarter.  

This win means UConn advances to its 24th Final Four in the 40-year career of legendary head coach Geno Auriemma. The most impressive statistic in all of sports is that UConn has appeared in 16 of the last 17 Final Fours. Needless to say, Auriemma knows a thing or two about coaching his team to success on the biggest stages. 

Big East Player of the Year Paige Bueckers also has extensive experience in the Final Four, with this being her fourth and final appearance. Knowing that this is her last chance to win a National Championship, she has turned up the heat in the NCAA Tournament. Through four games, Bueckers has shot 58.3% from deep and has averaged 29 points, 3.8 assists and 3.3 steals per game.  

“Everybody is there to win a national title,” Bueckers said. “Nobody is there on accident. Everybody there is elite and great and there for a reason.”  

Thanks to a phenomenal showing from Sarah Strong and Bueckers, the Huskies defeated one of the only three teams to have beaten them this season. Auriemma emphasized the importance of impact players like Strong and Bueckers, explaining that a team cannot win a championship without a player like that.  

“Without those two players playing to the level that they are playing at, you would not get to the Final Four,” Auriemma said. “If they do not play great next Friday night, we are not going to win. If you said those two were not going to play, there is no reason to get on the plane. If you do not have guys like that, you do not have a shot.” 

This was one of the most physical games we have seen in this tournament, with both teams seemingly searching for contact on both ends of the floor. USC’s Rayah Marshall made her post presence known early and finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds. Despite her success in the paint, the Trojans had no answer for UConn’s depth.  

Strong was one rebound away from having a first-half double-double and finished with 22 points, 17 rebounds and four assists. She also made four of her six attempts from beyond the arc. 

Bueckers finished with 31 points, six assists, four steals, three rebounds and two blocks. She played stellar defense all night, causing miscommunication in the backcourt between starting guards Kennedy Smith and Avery Howell. There were numerous occasions when the Huskies would shut off every potential passing lane and force non-optimal passes to the post, which led to turnovers.   

Smith and Howell combined for 37 of the Trojans’ 67 points in the Sweet 16, but Bueckers and company were unfazed.  

“We got a whole lot of heart and a whole lot of toughness about us,” Bueckers said. “We play together as a team. We are super well-connected. We have been through so much adversity as individuals and as a team.” 

One of Bueckers’ biggest contributions in this game was her ability to draw fouls. She knew that USC’s game plan would be to slow her down for as long as possible, so she resorted to setting up good looks for her teammates, as well as getting to the charity stripe. She finished the night with nine free throws on 11 attempts.  

Bueckers nailed two huge three-pointers on back-to-back possessions going into halftime and iced the game in the fourth quarter with elite shooting. She began the final quarter by knocking down a beautiful mid-range jumper despite Howell’s immaculate defense. The next possession was a turnover on the inbound pass from the Trojans, which led to another three from Bueckers. She had 11 points and three assists in the fourth quarter.  

Strong dictated every aspect of the game in the first half, shutting down anything that the Trojan offense had up its sleeve and providing a shooting boost from the floor. Her physicality in this game was the primary reason that the Huskies avoided a close game. Auriemma says Strong’s performance was imperative since the Trojans were going to let anybody not named Paige Bueckers beat them.  

“We made a concerted effort to get her the ball and get her the ball early tonight,” Auriemma said. “We knew it was going to be tough on Paige early on in the game. Sarah impacts the game in so many ways that you just have so much confidence in her.” 

Kaitlyn Chen finished with 15 points and she played suffocating on-ball defense throughout both games this weekend. The opposing backcourt had no chance of creating plays with the activity Chen displayed on the defensive end.  

“That is something we always put an emphasis on. We are always talking about on-ball pressure,” Chen said. “The more on-ball pressure we have, the better our defense is. I feel like our coaches prepared us very well for both of these games, and we were locked in defensively.” 

UConn’s defense operated at an elite level in this game, something they will need to continue if they want to cut down the nets next weekend. They held the Trojans without a field goal for nearly six minutes between the second and third quarters. During this drought, the Huskies outscored the Trojans 16-4, extending the lead to 19.  

One week prior to this game, Big 10 Player of the Year and arguably the best player in the country, JuJu Watkins, went down with a torn ACL in the first quarter of the Trojans’ second-round matchup with Mississippi State. Though the Trojans beat the Huskies 72-70 in December, the injury to Watkins gave the Trojans essentially no hope of beating UConn.  

However, they went down fighting and gave a valiant effort at a comeback in the third quarter. Talia Von Oelhoffen broke the six-minute drought with a three-pointer and just a few plays later, she cut to the lane for an acrobatic “And 1” layup. On the final play of the third quarter, Von Oelhoffen battled through contact and drove to the lane for a floater that cut the lead to five entering the fourth quarter.  

The entire USC team did a great job of chipping away at the lead and getting to the free-throw line during this run. However, Auriemma’s Huskies always play their best in the fourth quarter, and this game was no exception.  

“I give a lot of credit to USC for what they were able to do, given what they had to endure with JuJu,” Auriemma said. “They could have easily just rolled over when we got up 19, and instead they fought back, and I think cut it to six. That says a lot about them.” 

The Huskies are the hottest team in the country, entering Tampa having won 25 of their last 26 games. They will face off with another team from Southern California when they take on the UCLA Bruins (34-2) at 6 p.m. on Friday. Though UCLA has been higher than UConn in the polls for most of this season, the Huskies are favored to return to the National Title game.