Women’s Final Four 2011: Notre Dame Shocks UConn, Texas A&M Stuns Stanford In Upset Sunday

Notre Dame’s 72-63 win over UConn on Sunday night was the Shock Heard Round The Women’s Basketball World. It was the Huskies themselves that are left to answer the questions as to why and how this happened. Head coach Geno Auriemma took note of the many mistakes and passive play his team showcased in the second half:

Once we took Stefanie out we just didn’t have much of a presence physically inside, and they took advantage of that. They drove the ball into the lane and they forced us to make -- as Kelly and Maya said, we made some mistakes defensively, and sometimes teams can’t capitalize on your mistakes. But Notre Dame did tonight. The last three times we have played them, we may have made similar mistakes but they didn’t make shots. So today I think we lost our aggressiveness in the second half. I think in the second half, I think it was Maya -- Maya said that -- we played tentatively. We played on our heels. We allowed the calls and what was happening to kind of affect the way we played. We lost -- we really did; we lost our attacking mentality on the defensive end. And you can’t do that against Notre Dame.“Meanwhile, Notre Dame can’t help but feel euphoric over their big win. Freshman Natalie Achonwa can hardly believe the support her team is getting during their run:

How do you top Texas A&M’s upset of Stanford to kick off the Final Four? By having UConn, mighty UConn, lose to Notre Dame. That’s how.

Down 32-26 at the half, Notre Dame rallied behind Skylar Diggins and Natalie Novosel and held off Maya Moore’s late charge to finish off the epic upset. The Irish advance to Tuesday night’s championship against Texas A&M in search of their 2nd National Title and first in ten years.

Diggins has 24 points on the night and is leading the Irish charge, as they’ve outscored the Huskies 29-15 in the half so far. Brittany Mallory’s return to the game and subsequent three-pointer helped power Notre Dame’s lead even more. Natalie Novosel is 2nd on the team with 17 points so far.

Maya Moore leads the Huskies with 22 points but she only has seven points in the half so far. She’ll need to do a lot more in order to save the season for UConn. Bria Hartley has added ten for the Huskies but no other UConn player has double-digits.

It’s no surprise that the UConn Huskies are ahead at halftime of their Final Four match-up with Big East rival Notre Dame. The surprise might be that the Irish are keeping it pretty close, trailing only by six at the half, 32-26.

Notre Dame was getting great play from Brittany Mallory, who has a knack for causing UConn star Maya Moore fits. Unfortunately, Mallory went down with an injury and hasn’t returned to action. Picking up the slack is Skylar Diggins, who has 14 points. No other Irish player has more than four.

Quotes compiled by SB Nation’s Stephanie Kuzydym, on the scene at the Women’s Final Four in Indianapolis.

Texas A&M’s mounted a massive comeback in order to upset Stanford, 63-62. Cardinal Freshman Chiney Ogwumike reacts to the loss:

Quotes compiled by SB Nation’s Stephanie Kuzydym, on the scene at the Women’s Final Four in Indianapolis.

Texas A&M’s thrilling 63-62 win over Stanford required a comeback for the ages. The Aggies’ Sydney Carter explains how that comeback happened.

Stanford, a No. 1 seed and extremely potent offensive team came into their national semifinal match against Texas A&M as heavy favorites. If you look at the shooting percentages in the box score, it’s already obvious why. A&M simply isn’t that potent of an offensive team, and Stanford can score at will. However, when you turn the ball over, your shooting percentage can quickly become irrelevant. Stanford learned the hard way, and they’re out of the 2011 Women’s Final Four after losing to Texas A&M by a score of 63-62 in an absolutely wild finish.

Texas A&M’s great defense and offensive deficiencies turned this into the kind of game that most people would classify as ugly and scrappy, and that’s if they’re nice and they feel like using euphemisms. However, the outstanding thing about formatting a tournament and a sport in the way that Division I college basketball is formatted allows for incredible drama, even if most of the game wasn’t that well played.