Women’s Basketball: Huskies return to Tampa a decade later for 24th Final Four

After starting in Storrs and traveling to Spokane, Wash., the UConn women’s basketball team will return to the east coast to take on the UCLA Bruins in Tampa for their 24^th Final Four appearance.  

The Huskies are coming off a 78-64 Elite Eight win over the USC Trojans, where the trio of Paige Bueckers, Sarah Strong and Kaitlyn Chen dominated on the hardwood.  

Bueckers earned the Spokane Region’s most valuable player award, racking up a total of 31 points and six assists.  

In addition, Strong reached a career high of 17 rebounds and notched a total of 22 points and four assists.  

“There’s a way that you win these games, and generally speaking, they are, you know, on the backs of one or two particular players that are going to put the team on their backs and get us to the next level, to get us to The Final Four,”  head coach Geno Auriemma said to the media postgame Monday evening.  

This year marks the 16^th time of the last 17 years that Auriemma and his program has made it this far in the Big Dance, as the Huskies start their pursuit for their 12^th National Championship.  

“There’s Disney Land, there’s Disney World and there’s UConn world; these are fantasy numbers,” said Auriemma to the media postgame.  

The last time the Huskies lifted the NCAA trophy was in 2016, when the Huskies put the cherry on top of a perfect season with an 82-51 win over Syracuse.  

Standing in the way of the Huskies heading to the national championship game is Lauren Betts of UCLA. Betts, a native of Centennial, Colo., averaged around 20 points per game in her junior campaign. 

The Bruins are coming off a 72-65 win over the Louisiana State Tigers, where the 6-foot-7 center notched attained 17 points and seven rebounds.  

To notch the dub, the Huskies will need to stay feisty by the boards to keep the ball in the offensive zone, as the Bruins, for the last five games, are in the 17^th percentile for defensive rebounding and only notch a defensive rebound 65% of the time.  

Moreover, over the last five games, UCLA has only been averaging 6.2 steals and 10.2 offensive rebounds per game, as well as they are only scoring 40.7% of their points in the paint. If the Huskies maintain their consistency on defense, using KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade at their disposal, Husky fans should expect the squad to return to Amalie Arena on Sunday afternoon.  

Tip-off is scheduled for 9 p.m. from Amalie Arena; Husky fans can tune into the matchup on ESPN.