At least two No. 1 seeds will be at Tampa’s Amalie Arena this Friday for the NCAA Women’s Final Four. Two more could book trips on Monday.
The national semifinals are scheduled for 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, with the national championship at 3 p.m. Sunday. Limited tickets remain.
Defending champion South Carolina reached its fifth straight Final Four with a grinding 54-50 win over Duke in the Region 2 final on Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama.
In Tampa, the Gamecocks will face the winner between top-seeded Texas and TCU on Monday in their bid to become the first repeat champion since UConn's run of four straight from 2013 to 2016.
EVENT SCHEDULE: Plenty of free events in Tampa leading up to the Final Four
South Carolina trailed Duke 42-38 heading into the fourth quarter before scoring the first eight points of the period. The Gamecocks never trailed after that.
“There's stretches in each game that does not look pretty,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “Some of it’s not going to look as smoothly as us coaches and players envision. How we practice. But you certainly have to get down and play the kind of game that’s presented in front of you. We’ll do that. If we're not scoring a lot of points, we'll up our defense.”
UCLA earned its first trip to the Final Four, knocking off third-seeded LSU 72-65 in the Region 1 final in Spokane, Washington.
The Bruins got another big game by Lauren Betts. The 6-foot-7 All-American had 17 points, seven rebounds and six blocked shots despite sitting out the second quarter with foul trouble.
“When I watch her influence winning in so many other ways, even though she wasn't really making her shots, even though she got in foul trouble in the first half, it's a big deal,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I think every game is going to create sort of chaos, to create adversity, and which team can respond and have awareness of what that's like and find other ways to make, to affect winning, that's just really cool to see Lauren do that, even after she struggled.
In Tampa, UCLA will face the winner of Monday's Region 4 championship in Spokane between No. 1 seed Southern California (31-3) and No. 2 seed UConn (34-3).
UConn All-American Paige Bueckers has been one of college basketball's best players during her time in Storrs, with the only missing part of her resume a national championship.
USC will be without its best player, All-American JuJu Watkins. She suffered a season-ending knee injury against Mississippi State in the second round, but it didn't slow the Trojans in a Sweet 16 win over Kansas State.
Former Big 12 rivals Texas (34-3) vs. TCU (34-3) will meet for the Region 3 title in Birmingham, Alabama.
Top-seeded Texas has one of the nation's best defenses and is holding NCAA Tournament opponents to 56 points per game. The Longhorns also have All-American Madison Booker. The 6-foot-1 forward was the Southeastern Conference player of the year and is averaging 16.4 points and 6.8 rebounds.
The Frogs are in the Elite Eight for the first time. Coach Mark Campbell’s “Under Frogs” went from having to hold open tryouts to find enough healthy players to the cusp of a Final Four behind the trio of Sedona Prince, Haley Van Lith and Madison Conner.
WUSF's Rick Mayer contributed to this report.
