The women’s NCAA tournament will have its first two Final Four teams named Monday with a pair of primetime games on ESPN. If Sunday’s Sweet 16 matchups were any indication, nobody will be safe trying to tie up a Final Four bid Monday.
NCAA Women’s 2013 bracket and schedule: Two Final Four bids for grabs Monday
Each regional final Monday has a team with no Final Four appearances in school history.
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In the Bridgeport regional, the No. 1 Connecticut Huskies will take on the No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats. This year’s appearance marks UConn’s eighth Elite Eight in a row and 13th in the past 14 years. The Huskies have also qualified for the last five Final Fours.
UConn advanced to last year’s Final Four with an 80-65 win over Kentucky in the regional final, a game which the Wildcats were within one point about five minutes into the second half before the Huskies’ defense clamped down and ran away with a win.
The Wildcats have been to three Elite Eights in four years under sixth-year coach Matthew Mitchell. Prior to Mitchell’s tenure, the school’s only Elite Eight appearance was in 1982. Kentucky has never been to a Final Four.
The second game of the evening is the final in the Spokane regional between the No. 2 California Golden Bears and the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia carved its way through the bracket with a surprising 61-59 win over the No. 1 Stanford Cardinal on Friday. It was Stanford’s third loss of the season.
The Golden Bears are making their first Elite Eight appearance Monday, and their only prior Sweet 16 appearance came in 2009.
The women’s hoops world was stunned Sunday when the No. 4 seed Louisville Cardinals shot 16-of-25 from 3-point range to beat the No. 1 Baylor Bears 82-81 in the Sweet 16. Baylor was the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed and had only lost one game this season prior to Sunday. The Bears were also the defending national champions, going 40-0 in 2011-12.
Baylor took its first lead of the game with 9.1 seconds to go on a pair of Odyssey Sims free throws, but Monique Reid hit two free throws with 2.6 seconds left -- Brittney Griner was the one to foul her -- to give the Cardinals the win. Louisville led by as many as 19 in the game.
7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN: No. 4 Kentucky vs. No. 1 Connecticut, Bridgeport regional
9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN: No. 4 Georgia vs. No. 2 California, Spokane regional
The full bracket can be seen here.
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