BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut – Paige Bueckers scored 15 of her 27 points in the two overtime runs, and UConn beat North Carolina 91-87 to expand the Husky’s Final Four women’s streak to 14 straight points Monday night.
Husky, who was 0-for-5 in overtime in the NCAA Championships, will face top seed Stanford Friday night in the national semifinals in Minneapolis.
The Bakers, who grew up 10 miles outside the Final Four, scored the first five points in second overtime to lift the Huskies (29-5).
“Two days ago I said, ‘Win or go home,’ but we won and I’m still going home,” Beckers said. “This is crazy. I am so excited no matter the location, no matter where it is.”
The sensational sophomore, who has missed two months this season with a knee injury, has again emerged as the AP’s 2021 AP Player of the Year. She was named Bridgeport District Player of the Year.
“Thank God, Paige is back, because it gives everyone so much confidence, and then everyone kind of played and everyone took turns doing plays,” said Ocon coach Gino Orima. “It was just a great basketball game and it was a great show for our sport.”
With North Carolina State within 86-84 in second overtime, Kristen Williams hit the second from two free throws and then another with 21 seconds left to give Ocon an 89-85 lead.
Jakia Brown-Turner, who scored 3-pointers at 0.8 seconds in the first overtime to tie the match, then blocked a corner kick to get Wolfbeck within two, but Williams converted a corner kick off the field to score the win.
Ocon lost senior center Durka Johas to a forearm injury earlier in the match.
“This team has been through a lot that has made us stronger,” Beckers said. “And if we see one of our sisters go down, we’ll do it for her. We all love each other, we’re all so close. It just points to what we’ve been through all year. A whole bunch of ordeals, highs and lows, ups and downs. We stayed calm and stayed together.”
Brown Turner finished with 20 points for North Carolina State (32-4).
Both teams had chances to win in the last 30 seconds of regulation. Ocon’s Olivia Nelson-Ododa was fouled with 28 seconds left and missed both free throws. On the ensuing takeover, Diamond Johnson dribbled the clock and drove before passing it back to Kay Crutchfield, who was just 3 pointers deep off the wing by 3 pointers deep.
North Carolina State was trying to reach the National Semifinals for the second time in the school’s history. Wolfpack got this far in 1998, beating the Elite Eight Huskies that season to advance. None of the current list was alive at the time.
Crutchfield, Raina Perez and Kayla Jones are back this year using an additional COVID-19 season awarded by the NCAA to try and elevate the Wolfpack to new heights. They succeeded, going further than the team has achieved in 24 years.
The Husky family have dealt with injuries and COVID-19 issues all season and suffered their biggest losses since 2012, including their first conference defeat in nine years and their first loss to an unranked team since 2012.
Things have been looking up for UConn since the team started to recover, starting with Bueckers.
This was the first double-overtime match in the history of the NCAA Women’s Championship in a regional final or later.
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