UConn knocks off Hidalgo, Notre Dame to reach its 25th Final Four

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — All-America forward Sarah Strong scored 21 points, Blanca Quiñonez 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.

This was the first time Notre Dame had made it past the Sweet 16 since then.

While this game was closer than January 19 when UConn won by 38 points in the most-lopsided game in the 57-game series (UConn leads 41-16), the Irish couldn't overcome the rolling Huskies.

During a nearly five-minute stretch in the third quarter when UConn went scoreless while missing 11 consecutive shots, the Irish got no closer than eight points. Hidalgo had a jumper and two free throws for their only points, but also was responsible for three of their four turnovers in that span.

That included Fudd’s steal from Hidalgo and Jana El Alfy’s layup that ended the scoring drought and put the Huskies up 40-30 with 3:51 left in the third quarter.

UConn took its first double-digit lead with six points in a 59-second span in the second quarter, soon after Hidalgo furiously responded when she thought she was fouled on a 3-point attempt that was instead a blocked shot by Strong.

That led to a driving layup by Quiñonez, who followed by rebounding a miss by Hidalgo and assisting on a breaking layup by Allie Ziebell. Quiñonez, the Big East freshman and sixth player of the year, than had a steal that led to a pullup jumper by Fudd for a 30-20 lead with 2:56 left in the first half.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness