Paige Bueckers leads No. 1 UConn into 13th straight Final 4 with win over No. 2 Baylor

Paige Bueckers scored 28 points and top seed UConn used a huge run spanning the final two quarters to beat No. 2 Baylor 69-67 on Monday night and reach a 13th consecutive Final Four in the women's NCAA Tournament.

UConn has made the national semifinals every season since 2008 and won six titles during that span. The Huskies await the winner of Arizona and Indiana on Friday night. Neither of those teams has played in a Final Four.

It took a last-second stop to keep that streak going.

The Huskies (28-1) trailed 55-45 late in the third quarter before scoring 19 consecutive points, including 10 by the freshman phenom Bueckers, who became the third first-year player to make first-team All-America.

Kingston, Ont., native Aaliyah Edwards contributed 4 points and 7 rebounds for the Huskies.

Baylor (28-3) wouldn't go away as Bueckers went cold in the final minutes. Trailing 64-55, NaLyssa Smith, an All-American herself, ended the Lady Bears' drought with 6:47 left and sparked a 12-4 burst that got Baylor within one after Dijonai Carrington converted two free throws with 19.3 seconds left.

After a timeout, Baylor fouled Christyn Williams, who missed both free throws to give the Lady Bears one last chance.

Carrington, who finished with 22 points, drove the lane to the left and missed a contested jumper from the baseline. Williams corralled the rebound and was fouled with 0.8 seconds left. She hit one of the free throws before Bueckers stole the inbounds pass at the buzzer.

No one has played UConn tougher over the last decade than Baylor, with each team winning four of the matchups. The Lady Bears (28-3) had won the previous two, including a 74-58 win at Connecticut in January of 2020.

They were supposed to meet this past January, but Baylor coach Kim Mulkey came down with COVID-19 around Christmas and the game was cancelled.

NORTH COURTS | Breaking down the Canadians in March Madness:

North Courts | Canadians to watch in March Madness

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The game got off to a fast start for UConn, which jumped out to a 16-4 lead behind Bueckers. But Baylor was just getting going. The Lady Bears closed the action-packed first quarter with a 20-10 run and trailed 26-24 after one.

The offence slowed down in the second quarter. There were 11 blocks combined in the first half, including seven by Baylor, which led 39-37 at the break.

Carrington provided a huge spark off the bench, scoring 14 points to go along with two steals and a block in the opening 20 minutes.

Baylor went on a 10-2 run in the third quarter to push ahead 55-45. Then UConn took over, scoring the final eight points of the period. Williams and Bueckers highlighted an 8-0 spurt that made it a two-point game heading into the fourth quarter.

UConn starting guard Nika Muhl missed her third straight game with a sprained right ankle she suffered in the team's opening-round win over High Point.

McDonald powers Arizona past Indiana

Aari McDonald scored 33 points and No. 3 seed Arizona beat No. 4 Indiana 66-53 on Monday night to earn its first trip to the Final Four of the women's NCAA Tournament.

McDonald, the Pac-12 player of the year, did everything for the Wildcats, from slashing drives to a banked-in 3-pointer. She briefly left the game with a twisted ankle with 2:35 left, but limped back on and scored six more points. Her three-point play with 34 seconds left put the exclamation point on the victory.

Arizona (20-5) advanced to Friday's national semifinal against top-seeded UConn.

Arizona made consecutive 3-pointers in the middle of the fourth quarter, the latter from Helena Pueyo off a bullet pass from McDonald, for a 57-50 lead in what had been a tight, basket-for-basket game. Pueyo made two 3-pointers in the final quarter.

Pickering, Ont., native Shaina Pellington finished with two points, one assist and one rebound for the Wildcats.

The Hoosiers never led and went scoreless for nearly four minutes after pulling even at 48-48 in the fourth.

Mackenzie Holmes scored 20 points for Indiana (21-6), which was playing its first Elite Eight game.

The tension of the biggest night in program history for both teams showed early in a timid, ragged start as the first 10 shots of the game misfired before McDonald finally got a short jumper to fall. Once McDonald started heating up, she scored 10 points in carrying the Wildcats to a 14-11 lead to start the second quarter.

The Hoosiers methodically worked the ball to Holmes in the post to control the pace of play. But McDonald banked in a long 3-pointer to beat the shot clock early in the quarter and Arizona led 27-23 at halftime.

Two 3-pointers from McDonald and Trinity Baptiste pushed the lead to eight early in the third, before Holmes pulled Indiana back in it again with with 10 points in the quarter. McDonald ripped a rebound from the hands of an Indiana player and an easy layup sent Arizona into the fourth leading 46-44.