UConn Huskies women’s basketball team into Elite Eight after vintage run flattens No. 3 Indiana Hoosiers

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — UConn is heading to its 16th consecutive Elite 8 in women’s basketball with Saturday’s 75-58 victory in excess of No. 3 Indiana, run by a vintage Huskies’ run to get started the second 50 {cf07cd047201b183b19c0b335dbd7d35a498f84568531c8abe8643bd3ccfd494} that broke the game open up.

It begun with a Paige Bueckers 3 off an inbounds participate in on UConn’s initially possession of the second 50 percent.

Indiana would not even get the ball back before the Huskies managed to make a few much more shot makes an attempt on their stop pursuing back again-to-again Hoosiers off-ball fouls, which Olivia Nelson-Ododa capitalized on with an offensive board and putback.

Next time down, Christyn Williams chipped in a layin off a give-and-go right before Bueckers and Aaliyah Edwards also joined in on the exciting and the Hoosiers could not get a shot to drop.

It may be a season not like any UConn has professional in some time, but for 4 minutes at the start out of the second fifty percent, it was like aged times for the Huskies.

In just a blink of an eye, their four-position halftime lead mushroomed to 20 guiding the 2-seeded Huskies’ lockdown defense, entire management of the boards and a humming offense that created 12 points off layups alone.

Indiana launched a temporary rally, pulling within just 11 midway by way of the fourth quarter, but the hurt had previously been carried out.

“We likely needed to stay out there,” Indiana head mentor Teri Moren stated. “We went back again into the locker space and manufactured some changes, but we arrived back out in the third quarter and it was just definitely a bugaboo for us.”

The Hoosiers close their time at 24-9.

With a gain more than NC Condition on Monday in the regional ultimate, the Huskies would advance to a 14th straight Final Four — much from a certainty previously this period, as the Huskies struggled at occasions devoid of Bueckers for 19 games and star freshman Azzi Fudd for 11 with knee and foot accidents, respectively. The third-quarter run was a pointed out transform immediately after UConn experienced struggled in the round of 32 versus a actual physical UCF team, scoring just 52 points on sub-30{cf07cd047201b183b19c0b335dbd7d35a498f84568531c8abe8643bd3ccfd494} capturing.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma mentioned he expected that was extra of a just one-off dependent on the matchup than a symptom of a broader challenge. Saturday’s performance, and specially the Huskies’ third-quarter spark, proved that to be legitimate.

“We understood accurately wherever we were going. We knew exactly where the ball was heading. We knew exactly where the pictures were being coming from. We could decide and pick which shots we required to acquire, and we acquired extra layups than we experienced gotten in the prior two quarters,” Auriemma claimed. “I have witnessed it a lot about 20 some years. But this yr, I enjoy it extra for the reason that it’s been more difficult to arrive by.”

Indiana, which fell to Iowa in the Major 10 event championship game, entered the matchup boasting an experienced group headlined by tremendous senior Ali Patberg and WNBA prospect Grace Berger. The Hoosiers have been hoping to achieve again-to-again Elite Eights soon after getting down 1-seed NC Point out in the Sweet 16 previous period.

Although the disciplined Hoosiers have been hot to get started, UConn’s somewhat youthful guard corps, headlined by Bueckers and Fudd, settled in to acquire the struggle of the backcourts, shown properly over and above their 3rd-quarter cost. The Huskies, who have prided themselves on their defense all time, held Indiana to beneath 60 points for just the sixth time this 12 months. Restricting Berger to 13 points on 4-for-11 taking pictures was a huge portion of that.

Patberg led the Hoosiers with 16 details.

“Actively playing Indiana is almost certainly as tough an assignment as there is for your guards,” Auriemma said. “Their guards set so a lot stress on your guards. They are so aggressive with the ball. And I believed we did an wonderful task defensively. I imagined that was the big difference in the video game, that we were being in a position to get the stops that we necessary and not enable them engage in to their strengths, which was enable their guards definitely, truly go off.”

“We’ve confronted some seriously great defensive groups, but they ended up wonderful,” said Moren, who also pointed to the Huskies’ physicality as a variation-maker. “They ended up fantastic today, UConn.”

Bueckers was the most intense she’s been since returning from personal injury Feb. 25 — by the middle of the third quarter, she’d now surpassed her earlier superior for pictures tried in a sport because her return. She eventually completed with 15 details — 9 of which have been in the decisive third quarter — on 7-for-17 capturing. Williams matched her with 15 factors to lead the Huskies.

Soon after an uneventful start off to the postseason for UConn’s post gamers, they came by way of just as meaningfully as the guards to propel the Huskies to the Elite Eight. Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Edwards practically outrebounded the Hoosiers single-handedly 24-27, awarding UConn sufficient next-opportunity possibilities off 15 offensive boards.

“We are a very good offensive staff, and to give us a lot more than 1 shot, that is permitting us to do what we do very best,” Auriemma said. “But it usually takes a large amount of perform and not everybody is ready to do it.”

Monday’s No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup between NC Point out and UConn attributes groups boasting different kinds of knowledge. The Wolfpack perform an upperclassmen-large group, but will be taking part in their very first Elite 8 because 1998 adhering to a arrive-from-at the rear of acquire more than Notre Dame previously Saturday. The Huskies are fueled by their youth, but have six players who have played in at least a single Remaining Four.

Indiana might have been one particular of the Huskies’ toughest difficulties of the time. But with NC Point out and most likely Stanford or Texas right after that in Minneapolis, the street will not likely get any less complicated for UConn.

“You’ve bought to go out and beat their ass. They’re not likely to eliminate,” Auriemma stated. “Nobody is going to drop to you in this tournament. You have got to go out and beat them. It is really having more difficult and more difficult every single year, allow me convey to you.”