UCONN joins 3 best seeds in South Carolina, UCLA and Texas in Final Fermine

By Doug Feinberg
The Associated Press

Birmingham, ala. – The Final Four Female is full of star players, better seeds and historic programs.

There will be no Cindiderell in Tampa, Florida, this week with N ° 1 seeds from South Carolina, UCLA and Texas in the national semi-finals. They are joined by the favorite of the bets to win everything, Uconn, the second seeded, who played the best of all the teams in the last month and eliminated a head team from California to the head of serial who lacked his best player.

Coach Dawn Staley and defending champion Gamecocks have their fifth consecutive trip to the Final Four and have two victories to become the first to repeat since Uconn won four consecutive games from 2013-2016.

The South Carolina will face the enemy of the Southeast Texas Conference for the fourth time this season in a semi-final on Friday evening. Uconn will play UCLA in the other.

The Huskies are back in the Final Four for the second consecutive year and a record 24th time, and the star of Paige Bueckers seeks to bring the coach Geno Auriemma his 12th title and the first since this four peat.

The Global Sear Ucla’s seeded plays for the first time in the last NCAA female tournament. The Bruins won a national title in 1978 in the pre-NCAA era of women’s basketball, led by Ann Meyers Drysdale, and returned to the Final Four the following year.

This success had not gone to the NCAA before this season.

No program was in the Final Four more than the Huskies of Auriemma, which experienced a record series of 14 consecutive appearances of Final Four in 2023. Their 11 national titles are most of all the teams.

Here is an overview of the matches:

South Carolina vs Texas

The teams divided two regular season meetings, winning their shorts at home. The Gamecocks took the rubber match, winning the title of the 17 -point dry tournament. The Gamecocks have won three titles in the past eight years, but this year’s team has been tested in the playoffs. They won the two regional birmingham games by four points, at the top of Maryland and Duke.

During their victories on Texas this season, the Gamecocks held the longhorns less than 30%. In the defeat of Southern Carolina, Texas drew 44%.

“Rowing of experiences to be drawn and learning,” said Texas coach Vic Schaefer. “I have to learn and be different. This is the thing about their team, the Dawn teams. You know that you will get the same thing you are trying to transmit to others too. They will be hard, aggressive, physical. If you do not bring an advantage with you, it will not be very fun.”

There is a lot of star power in the two teams with Rori Harmon and Madison Booker leading Texas while Joyce Edwards, Chloe Kitts and Milaysia Fulwiley are the best gamecocks players.

The Texas has been in the Final Four for the first time since 2003. Schaefer has become the fifth trainer to take at least two teams in the Final Four, joining Marianne Stanley, Gary Blair and Kim Mulkey. C. Vivian Stringer took three schools in the national semi-finals. Schaefer led the Mississippi State to the championship matches in 2017 and 2018.

UCONN against UCLA

The Bruins have a dominant post player in 6 feet 7 inches Lauren Betts which was unstoppable in the tournament. She had consecutive matches of 30 points and 10 reimbursed in the second round and the Sweet 16. She played with pregnancy problems in the Elite Eight and finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and six blocks.