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Bueckers’ 31-point night propels UConn to the Final Four (2:05)
Paige Bueckers tallies 31 points, 6 assists and 4 steals as the UConn Huskies advance to their 24th Final Four. (2:05)
Upsets were few and far between in the 2025 women’s NCAA tournament. A lower seed prevailed over a higher seed just six times, but none was considered a significant upset. But just because there were few surprises doesn’t mean we aren’t in for a treat in Tampa, Florida.
Three No. 1 seeds — UCLA, South Carolina and Texas — and No. 2 seed UConn make for a potentially thrilling Final Four, especially with no clear-cut favorite. This feels a lot like 2018, when the final weekend of the season included all four No. 1 seeds, and it featured two overtime semifinal games and a buzzer-beater in the title game.
The results on Friday and Sunday will give us the final official ranking, but here is how the Final Four teams stack up heading into the national semifinals.
Original seed: No. 2 (Spokane 4)
Tournament results: 103-34 vs. No. 15 Arkansas State; 91-57 vs. No. 10 South Dakota State; 82-59 vs. No. 3 Oklahoma; 78-64 vs. No. 1 USC
Other programs have time-shares in the Final Four. UConn owns the real estate. The Huskies have reached the season’s final weekend for the 16th time in 17 years. Despite being a No. 2 seed, UConn elevated to the top of these rankings early in the NCAA tournament, and the Huskies haven’t let go. They have been March’s best team.
The absence of JuJu Watkins for USC in their Elite Eight matchup took a little steam out of one of the tournament’s most anticipated games, but it didn’t diminish UConn’s performance, in particular that of freshman Sarah Strong. In the biggest game of her young career, Strong was the early offensive catalyst and finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds. More importantly, her defense shut down USC’s No. 1 offensive option with Watkins out. With Strong as her primary defender, Kiki Iriafen shot 3-of-15 from the field and scored just 10 points.
But Strong didn’t outshine Paige Bueckers, who keeps making UConn history in this NCAA tournament. She scored 31 points and made six assists against the Trojans and has scored 105 points in UConn’s past three games. That is the most in any three-game span of any player in UConn history. Bueckers has now scored 30 points in three straight games for the second time in her career (she did it in her freshman season), and she’s also the only Huskies player to do it. Bueckers is on to her fourth Final Four, with one more chance to win her first national championship.
Up next: UCLA (Friday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN)
2. UCLA Bruins
Original seed: No. 1 (Spokane 1)
Tournament results: 84-46 vs. No. 16 Southern; 84-67 vs. No. 8 Richmond; 76-62 vs. No. 5 Ole Miss; 72-65 vs. No. 3 LSU
Before Cori Close took over as Bruins head coach in 2011, UCLA hadn’t played in a regional since 1999. By the time she reached Year 5, UCLA was back in the Sweet 16, led by sophomore Jordin Canada, and the Bruins have missed only two regionals since. It’s the most successful run the program has experienced in the NCAA era. Even though Canada led UCLA to an Elite Eight as a senior in 2018 and Charisma Osborne helped maintain a level of success, the Final Four remained elusive.
Close’s recruiting class of 2022, which included Kiki Rice, Londynn Jones and Gabriela Jaquez, was her best yet. Then when the one player she missed out on — Lauren Betts — left Stanford for Westwood the following year, bigger things seemed imminent. That day has arrived. With Betts and Rice leading the way and Jaquez coming up huge in the season’s biggest moments, most notably her 18 points, 4 3-pointers and 8 rebounds Sunday, the Bruins are in their first NCAA Final Four.
With Betts in the low post as the team’s No. 1 offensive option, UCLA ranked 207th in the country in percentage of points from 3-point range at 27.1% On Sunday against LSU, that ratio jumped to 41.6%. And it had to. With Betts saddled with first-half foul trouble, the shooting of Jaquez and Timea Gardiner delivered the win. The two juniors combined to make nine of 13 attempts from deep and score 33 points. Three of Gardiner’s treys came in the second quarter and helped UCLA outscore LSU by 10 in the period, with Betts on the bench for the entire 10 minutes.
Ultimately, LSU outrebounded UCLA and had four more field goals in the game. Those 3-pointers and how the Bruins survived the second quarter are sending the Bruins to Tampa — and might be the key to them winning there.
Up next: UConn (Friday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN)
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UCLA takes down LSU to advance to first Final Four
Lauren Betts and Gabriela Jaquez combine to score 35 points as UCLA defeats LSU in the Elite Eight.
Original seed: No. 1 (Birmingham 2)
Tournament results: 108-48 vs. No. 16 Tennessee Tech; 64-53 vs. No. 9 Indiana; 71-67 vs. No. 4 Maryland; 54-50 vs. No. 2 Duke
The defending NCAA champion Gamecocks are in the Final Four for the fifth straight year, and reaching this one was certainly the most challenging. South Carolina’s average margin of victory in its past three games was 6.3 points per game. The next-lowest margin for the Gamecocks in games from the second round on during the NCAA tournament over the past four years was 17.7 in 2021. During last year’s run to the Final Four, South Carolina trailed for a total of 1 minute, 10 seconds. This year the Gamecocks were behind for a total of 36 minutes, 27 seconds.
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South Carolina’s 54 points against Duke in the Elite Eight were the second fewest it has ever scored in the NCAA tournament (49 against Miami in the 2022 second round). The Gamecocks’ nine bench points were the fewest all season for a team that led the country in reserve scoring at 41.5 points per game. And the Gamecocks had only seven assists, matching the fewest they’ve ever had in an NCAA tournament game.
This trip to the Final Four was earned with defense and late-game execution, not overwhelming talent and physical dominance. Duke took away much of what South Carolina likes to do, expressly limiting the Gamecocks’ top two scorers Joyce Edwards and MiLaysia Fulwiley. The Gamecocks found the answer by going inside to Chloe Kitts and Sania Feagin, who combined for 26 points. More importantly, those two combined to score South Carolina’s final 10 points, including eight by Kitts. The depth and options at Dawn Staley’s disposal delivered again. Now the Gamecocks enter a Final Four that includes all three teams that beat them this season.
Up next: Texas (Friday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN)
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South Carolina’s Staley: ‘We fought our way in’ to Final Four
Dawn Staley says the Gamecocks “really weren’t supposed to be here” but never gave up on defending their national championship in the Final Four.
Original seed: No. 1 (Birmingham 3)
Tournament results: 105-61 vs. No. 16 William & Mary 105-61; 65-48 vs. No. 8 Illinois; 67-59 vs. No. 5 Tennessee; 58-47 vs. No. 2 TCU
Vic Schaefer oversaw the defense as an assistant coach at Texas A&M when the Aggies won the 2011 national championship. As the head coach at Mississippi State, he took the Bulldogs to national title games in 2017 and 2018, led by top-five-rated defenses. Now he has taken Texas to its first Final Four since 2003 with a defense that has not allowed any of its four opponents in the NCAA tournament to score more than 61 points. TCU, which averaged 77.5 points per game this season, scored 47 in their Elite Eight matchup. Schaefer preaches toughness, physicality and intensity. His Longhorns have delivered on all counts this season.
Turning to a full-court press against the Horned Frogs, Texas forced 21 turnovers and held TCU to 26.7% shooting. It was the best defensive effort of a dominant four-game NCAA tournament stretch. The offense had its struggles Monday, which didn’t allow Texas to put away the Horned Frogs until late, but with Rori Harmon producing early (13 points, 11 in the first half) and Madison Booker late (18 points, 14 in the second half), the Longhorns had enough.
Now it’s on to a fourth meeting with new SEC rival South Carolina, and offense has been the issue against the Gamecocks. Texas lost two of the three meetings with South Carolina and had its two lowest-scoring games of the season in the two defeats.
Up next: South Carolina (Friday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN)
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Texas takes down TCU in Elite Eight to head to Final Four
Check out the top plays from Texas as the Longhorns defeat TCU 58-47 to head to the Final Four for the first time since 2003.
