UConn head coach Geno Auriemma reacts after his team defeated Notre Dame in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

FORT WORTH, Texas — All-America forward Sarah Strong scored 21 points, Blanca Quinonez added 20 and defending national champion UConn beat Notre Dame 70-52 on Sunday in the Fort Worth Regional 1 final, sending coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies to their 25th Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament.

The Huskies (38-0), who have won 54 games in a row, clinched the first spot for the Final Four in Phoenix. They will be going for their 13th national championship.

Azzi Fudd, UConn’s other first-team AP All-America pick, added 13 points and four assists.

Hannah Hidalgo had 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Fighting Irish (25-11), plus three more steals to increase her NCAA single-season record to 202 and single NCAA tourney mark to 29. But she also had five turnovers, the first time in her 10 NCAA tourney games with more turnovers than steals.

The ninth NCAA tourney meeting between the Huskies and the Irish was their first with a spot in the Final Four on the line. They had both made it that far the first eight times they met in March Madness, the last in 2019 when Notre Dame won a semifinal game over UConn and then lost to Baylor in the title game.

UCLA rallies in win

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Lauren Betts had 23 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks to help UCLA rally from a rare halftime deficit and beat Duke, advancing to the women’s Final Four for the second straight season.

The top-seeded Bruins will play either Texas or Michigan in Phoenix on Friday in the national semifinals.

Third-seeded Duke tested UCLA (35-1) like few teams had done this season. The Bruins struggled to get going offensively or contain the Blue Devils (27-9), who reached their second straight Elite Eight on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Ashlon Jackson against LSU in the Sweet 16.

Taina Mair scored 21 points to lead Duke, which also lost in a regional final last year.

USC in TCU’s way

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Dawn Staley and South Carolina are mainstays in the Final Four while TCU is looking to reach March Madness ‘ biggest stage for the first time.

The two teams will play tonight in the Sacramento 4 Regional Final with a trip to the women’s national semifinals on the line. The winner will face undefeated UConn on Friday in Phoenix.

The Gamecocks have been to the Final Four in six of the past eight seasons and won three national championships during that stretch. Staley has been at the helm for all of them, including the undefeated 2023-24 season.

South Carolina has a big experience advantage over TCU, which advanced to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season with basically a whole new roster led by Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez.

“I think they are very calculated and methodical and who they want to shoot the basketball, who they want to be play makers, who they want to be spacers,” Staley said of TCU.

Coach Mark Campbell has built his team the last two seasons through the transfer portal. He got six players this past season, including Miles, who turned down going to the WNBA to finish off her college career with the Horned Frogs after transferring from Notre Dame.

“We’ve built our program literally all through the portal, for you guys that haven’t followed us,” Campbell said. “I think we’ve had 18 portal players, six each year. And our program’s come a long ways. There’s a lot of negative you hear about the portal. I think there’s a lot of positive too.”

While most of his team hasn’t been to the Elite Eight, Campbell insists he learned a lot from last season when the Horned Frogs lost to Texas.

“I’m much more prepared in leading our team and understanding and navigating the next 48 hours,” Campbell said after the Sweet 16 win over Virginia.