March madness: NCAA women’s Final Four has familiar faces

The Final Four for the NCAA Women’s basketball tournament is a repeat from last season, as all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the championship weekend.

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South Carolina was the final team to secure a berth in Phoenix, as the Gamecocks defeated TCU 78-52 on Monday night.

They will join the University of Connecticut, the women’s defending champion; Texas; and UCLA.

South Carolina will face UConn in one semifinal on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, while Texas and UCLA will clash at 9 p.m.

The winners of both semifinals will meet for the title on Sunday.

“Any time you’re able to play on the third weekend in the NCAA Tournament,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. “It’s always special.”

The Gamecocks, seeking their third national title in five seasons, became only the second team in NCAA history to reach six consecutive Final Fours, ESPN reported.

They will find out in a hurry against unbeaten UConn.

The Huskies (38-0) advanced with a 70-52 victory against Notre Dame (25-11), UCLA (35-1) took a 70-58 win against Duke and Texas (35-3) earned a 77-41 victory against Michigan (28-7).

The only other time the same four teams reached consecutive Final Fours was when UConn, Tennessee, Stanford and Georgia did it in 1995-1996, according to The Associated Press.

It is also the fifth time that all four No. 1 seeds have reached the women’s Final Four.

“I’m proud to be included in that group,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “There’s going to be four really elite teams with a bunch of really elite players and some great coaches.”

Texas, led by star guard Madison Booker, handed UCLA its only loss, winning by 11 points in a November game, The Athletic reported. The Longhorns have not won a national title since 1986, while the Bruins have never won a title during the NCAA era.

UConn is seeking its 13th national title under coach Geno Auriemma.

“It’s always really hard,” Auriemma said about winning a game in the Elite Eight to reach the Final Four. “I’ve said this for countless years. It’s always the hardest game there is to play. It’s so hard to get to the Final Four. You always have to beat a really, really good team at this stage of the game.”

UCLA rallied for a Final Four berth after being behind at the half -- only the second time all season the Bruins trailed at the intermission.

“We understood that the first half wasn’t a good representation of how we want to play basketball,” UCLA forward Angela Dugalic said. “But (coach) Cori (Close) came in and what she said right now is, like, ‘How do we stick back to our values and stay neutral, focus on next-play speed?’”