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UConn is off to the Final Four

BY JOHN MARSHALL

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The critique of UConn under coach Dan Hurley had been the program’s inability to win in March.

Consecutive first-round NCAA Tournament exits meant the Huskies were good, not great — certainly not anywhere in league with the UConn women’s program.

In perhaps the maddest March of all, Huskies proved they are elite again, putting in another dominating performance a few hours after the UConn women had a rare misstep.

Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and UConn overwhelmed its fourth straight NCAA Tournament opponent, earning its first trip to the Final Four in nine years with an 82-54 blowout of Gonzaga on Saturday night.

“I think it becomes a little bit of a mental hurdle, especially like early rounds of the NCAA Tournament where you feel like maybe the burden of the history and tradition and first-round games, maybe even second-round games,” Hurley said. “The climb to get to this point has been real and it’s been more challenging than I thought.”

The Huskies (29-8) have felt right at home in their first extended March Madness run since winning the 2014 national championship, playing their best basketball of what had been an up-and-down season.

UConn controlled the usually efficient Bulldogs at both ends in the West Region final, building a 23-point lead early in the second half to waltz right into the final section of the bracket.

Those first-round exits are now well in the rearview mirror. So is that midseason funk.

These elite Huskies did what the UConn women couldn’t for once and are headed to Houston, where they will play Texas or Miami.

UConn has a pretty good

expectations surged again.

“The surprise was, more than anything, leading up to this all week — we felt like we had really, really good workouts, we had really good idea what we wanted to do, what Ohio State was going to do and we started the game like we knew,” Auriemma said Saturday. “The first couple times we turned the ball over, it was a real punch that kind of put us back a little bit. It was so unlike what I’ve seen in the last month.”

UConn knew Ohio State’s smothering press was going to be difficult to deal with, but point guard Nika Muhl said Friday she thought the Huskies would be in a “good place against it.

“They create a lot of chaotic situations for you if you’re not prepared to handle it,” Auriemma said before the game.

UConn had 25 turnovers, the most since the Huskies played Princeton in December and had 27 turnovers.

The first half proved chaotic for UConn, which struggled to handle the press. The Huskies had 18 turnovers and trailed 36-26 at halftime. It didn’t help that Aaliyah Edwards was in foul trouble and only played nine minutes in the first half, and Lopez

Senechal, who led the Huskies in scoring at halftime with eight points, slipped midway through the second quarter and left the court, holding her right knee. UConn didn’t even to get a shot off in the second quarter until Azzi Fudd hit one with 5:30 left in the quarter and the Huskies trailing 26-19.

Lopez Senechal returned in the second half and hit a driving baseline layup and it appeared the Huskies had righted themselves. But they had another turnover. Edwards picked up her fourth foul with 7:07 left.

By the end of the third quarter, the Huskies still trailed by 10, 54-44. UConn made a brief rally in the fourth, cutting the lead to nine on a Lopez Senechal 3-pointer with 3:44 left. But the Huskies couldn’t muster anything else after that.

“I think Ohio State just outplayed us and took us out of a bunch of stuff that we want to do,” Auriemma said. “Again, it’s unfortunate that we chose tonight to play the way we did, but I think Ohio State had so much to do with that. I thought Kevin’s team was really, really good and really well prepared. They knew exactly what they wanted to do and what to take away from us. We lost our balance and we lost our equilibrium a little bit and I don’t think we ever got it back.”

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2023-03-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://the-chronicle.pressreader.com/article/281719798837077

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