LINCOLN, Neb. - Music City is the next stop for a Connecticut women’s team that just keeps humming along in search of a record ninth national championship.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis finished with 17 points, and Connecticut advanced to the women’s Final Four for the seventh consecutive year with a 69-54 victory against Texas A&M on Monday night.
“It’s not easy to beat anybody at this time of the year because everybody is playing their best basketball,” UConn Coach Geno Auriemma said. “We beat a pretty good team today, and I’m proud of my team. I thought we were really, really good when we needed to be really, really good.”
The defending national champion Huskies (38-0) won their 44th consecutive game. Their semifinal opponent Sunday in Nashville will be either Stanford or North Carolina.
Stefanie Dolson, who made her 150th career start to tie the NCAA record, had 14 points and 10 rebounds and blocked a career-high eight shots. Bria Hartley had 14 points, Breanna Stewart added 13 and Moriah Jefferson 11.
“It feels amazing and is really unexplainable,” Dolson said. “A lot of people around the nation can’t say they’ve made it once to the Final Four or having the opportunity to play for a national championship. For me to have the opportunity to play for a national championship. For me to have the opportunity four times, and this being my senior year, I’m very excited.”
Courtney Walker led Texas A&M (27-9) with 14 points. Courtney Williams had 13 and Jordan Jones 12.
Mosqueda-Lewis, an All-American last year who missed a total of 12 games this season because of injury or illness, was named the regional’s most outstanding player.
She had 19 points and 13 rebounds against Brigham Young on Saturday. Against the Aggies in the regional final she provided the spark after the Huskies found themselves in an early hole.
Her play made up for the slow start of Stewart, the American Athletic Conference player of the year, who got into early foul trouble and scored two of her 13 points in the first half.
The Aggies had shot 60 percent in their 84-65 victory over DePaul on Saturday, their best mark in an NCAA Tournament game. They hit 28.9 percent the first half while falling behind 34-23 against UConn and finished at 35.3 percent for the game.
The Aggies had won their first three games in the tournament by 15 points or more, but they ran into a UConn club that was just too powerful, whether in transition or in the paint.
The Aggies made their first six shots of the second half to cut into UConn’s 11-point halftime lead. Jones hit two three-pointers, and after she drove to the hoop on Jefferson, Texas A&M was within 40-37.
The Huskies cranked up their transition game in a10-0 run and outscored the Aggies 27-12 to build their lead to 18 points in the final three minutes. No team has played UConn closer than 11 points this season.
“We competed, and I thought we really had a chance when we cut it to three,” Texas A&M Coach Gary Blair said. “A great team just looks you in the face and says, ‘Is that all you got?’ They came down and got two easy baskets before I could call timeout.”
NOTRE DAME REGIONAL NOTRE DAME 88, BAYLOR 69
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame’s quest for perfection will continue at the Final Four.
Jewell Loyd scored 30 points and unbeaten Notre Dame advanced to the Final Four for a fourth consecutive season with a victory over Baylor on Monday night.
Natalie Achonwa added 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Irish (36-0), who will face either Louisville or Maryland in the national semifinals in Nashville.
Notre Dame became the sixth school to reach the Final Four in four consecutive seasons, joining Connecticut, LSU, Stanford, Louisiana Tech and Tennessee.
The loss ended the brilliant career of Baylor guard Odyssey Sims, who finished this season with 1,054 points - eight short of Jackie Stiles’ NCAA record for a single season. Sims scored 33 points for Baylor (32-5), but had little help on offense.
The victory extended Notre Dame’s home winning streak to 28 games. Baylor was the last team to beat the Irish in South Bend - doing so on Dec. 5, 2012 - but that team had 6-foot-8 star Brittney Griner.
The Irish led 44-32 at halftime as Loyd had 21 points in the first 20 minutes.
Sims rallied the Lady Bears scoring the first nine points of the second half to cut the deficit to 46-41. After a Notre Dame basket Baylor was called for backto-back offensive fouls - the eighth and ninth called in the game - and Coach Kim Mulkey had seen enough, letting the officials know her displeasure. That earned her a technical foul.
The teams traded baskets over the next few minutes and Baylor closed to within 65-60 before Notre Dame took over scoring 16 of the next 20 points, including eight from the free throw line. The Irish were 30 for 33 from the foul line in the game.
Regional glance All times Central MONDAY’S GAMES NOTRE DAME REGIONAL Notre Dame 88, Baylor 69 Notre Dame advances to Final Four LINCOLN REGIONAL Connecticut 69, Texas A&M 54 Connecticut advances to Final Four TODAY’S GAMES LOUISVILLE REGIONAL Louisville vs. Maryland, 6 p.m.
STANFORD REGIONAL Stanford vs. North Carolina, 8 p.m.
Sports, Pages 22 on 04/01/2014