SPOKANE, Wash. — After helping force USC into a turnover with 35.5 seconds left Monday night, Paige Bueckers clapped and screamed, “Yes!” before high-fiving her teammates.
When the final horn rang on Connecticut’s 78-64 victory against the top-seeded Trojans, she could finally allow herself to relax. A smile filled her face as she high-fived her teammates on the way to the bench.
The Huskies are heading to another Final Four.
It took a full team effort, especially in the second half.
The game got dicey for Connecticut, which saw a 19-point lead trimmed to five at the end of the third quarter, but Bueckers wasn’t going to allow the Huskies to blow this opportunity.
Bueckers led the Huskies with 31 points and, in a lot of ways, was a catalyst for Connecticut regaining control in the fourth quarter after the Trojans battled back.
Bueckers, who played the entire 40 minutes, scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to keep the Trojans at bay.
But Bueckers’ impact went far beyond scoring
She helped Azzi Fudd, who had been 0-for-9 entering the fourth, get going. All three of Fudd’s field goals came from Bueckers assists, and she finished with eight points — all scored in the fourth.
UConn didn’t need quite another signature performance by Bueckers, who dropped 40 points in the Sweet 16 just two nights earlier.
Freshman Sarah Strong had scored 10 of Connecticut’s 14 first-quarter points and finished with 22 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
But the night was still very much Bueckers’ moment.
All throughout the crowd were signs dedicated to Bueckers.
“Front Paige News.”
“We got Paige, you got problems.”
“Buckets by Bueckers.”
Dozens of young girls sporting Bueckers’ trademark hairstyle — two face-framing braids pulled back into ponytails.
But Bueckers lauded her teammates and called the game a “team win.”
Monday’s matchup was supposed to be the Bueckers and JuJu Watkins showdown — an epic rematch from the 2024 Elite Eight that belonged to the Huskies.
But last week Watkins tore her anterior cruciate ligament, which changed everything for USC.
If we learned anything about this USC team over the past week, though, it’s that the Trojans are courageous and not quitters. They could’ve played the “oh-woe-is-we” game when Watkins went down with a season-ending knee injury.
But USC didn’t.
They won two games and advanced to their second straight Elite Eight.
The Trojans trailed by as many as 19 in the third quarter. But they kept chipping away at the Huskies, who got a little too comfortable with their double-digit lead.
Talia von Oelhoffen scored 10 points in the third quarter, including the basket that made it a five-point game heading into the fourth.
USC battled until the very end. But UConn is too deep, too star-studded for the Trojans to take down without its motor.
On a night when one of college basketball’s biggest stars was noticeably absent, Bueckers, the more senior superstar, shined bright and kept her team’s hopes of ending Connecticut’s nearly decade-long title drought.
While the Huskies advance to their 16th Final Four in 17 NCAA Tournaments, USC will have to live with the what ifs and what could have been.
Connecticut will head to Tampa, where they’ll play UCLA, the No. 1 overall seed of this year’s tournament, Friday for a shot at playing in the national championship game.