WOMEN’S FINAL FOUR

The Final Four for the women’s NCAA basketball tournament will feature the four No. 1 seeds when they convene this weekend in Tampa.

Connecticut and Maryland, with Elite Eight victories on Monday night joined South Carolina and Notre Dame in the field.

Plucky Dayton, in the Elite Eight for the first time, actually led Connecticut at halftime, 44-43, before succumbing to UConn’s superior talent and size. The Huskies won 90-71, which, for them, is a close game. The Huskies, who have won the last two women’s titles, are in the Final Four for the eighth straight year.

UConn’s Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis set an NCAA women’s career record with 395 3-pointers. She hit seven against the Flyers on her way to a game-high 27 points.

“Now I only have one thing to worry about — a national championship,” she said.

Maryland, which had knocked Tennessee out of the tournament a year ago in the round of 16, more or less outlasted the Volunteers this time, pulling away late for a 58-48 win. Maybe the defense was stifling, but the shooting was terrible, with Maryland hitting less than 40 percent of its shots and Tennessee even less. The Volunteers, oddly enough, had only one free throw in the game (and missed it).

Lexie Brown led the Terrapins with 15 points, including three 3-pointers in the second half, as her team won for the 24^th consecutive time. National champs in 2006, the Terps are in the Final Four for the second year in a row.

The tournament semifinals games are Saturday, with South Carolina meeting Notre Dame at 6:30 p.m. ET, and Connecticut and Maryland dueling at 8:30 p.m.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .