Monday’s Spokane Region 4 final once looked destined to be a showdown of college basketball’s two biggest stars. It will take on a different tone for No. 1 Southern California as it aims for revenge against No. 2 UConn.
USC (31-3) advanced through a hard-fought Sweet 16 win on Saturday without national Player of the Year contender JuJu Watkins, who sustained a season-ending knee injury early in the Trojans’ second-round win over Mississippi State.
With Watkins sidelined, and with 18.2-ppg scorer Kiki Iriafen mustering just seven, USC rallied to beat Kansas State, 67-61. The victory set up a matchup with perennial powerhouse UConn, riding the high of its own Player of the Year candidate, Paige Bueckers, delivering some of the best performances of her career.
Bueckers led the Huskies (34-3) with a career-high 40 points in UConn’s 82-59 Sweet 16 romp vs. Oklahoma. The 40 points also marked an NCAA Tournament program high.
The record came one game after Bueckers’ 34 points in the second round vs. South Dakota State tied her previous personal best. Despite her scoring eruption, Bueckers said on Sunday that she is focused on a different kind of 40.
“Just go out and play every single game the same way like it’s your last, like it’s the most important 40 minutes of your life,” she said. “For that 40 minutes to play for another 40 is our team mindset.”
UConn is pursuing its 24th Final Four appearance, and the program’s first national championship since 2016. The current drought is the Huskies’ longest between titles since claiming the first in 1995.
USC, meanwhile, has not reached a Final Four since 1986. This is the program’s second straight Elite Eight, but Bueckers racked up 28 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for UConn in an 80-73 win over Watkins and the Trojans in last year’s regional final.
“The NCAA Tournament’s a bigger stage and now we don’t have JuJu,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said, “but I don’t think they’re in situations that are completely foreign and their growth throughout the course of the year has gotten them ready for these spots.”
Along with trying to reignite Iriafen, the Trojans will look to Kennedy Smith and Avery Howell to build off key performances in the Sweet 16 win over Kansas State. Smith scored 19 points and grabbed three steals, while Howell tallied 18 points, eight rebounds and four steals.
–Field Level Media
