Women's College Basketball: No. 1 Huskies, Terps reach Final Four

Geno Auriemma and his UConn Huskies are back in a familiar place - the Final Four.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scored 27 points to help UConn beat Dayton, 91-70, Monday night in the Albany Regional final to advance to the national semifinals for an eighth straight season.

Now the Huskies and Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown, stand two wins away from a third straight national championship. They accomplished that same feat from 2002-04.

UConn will play Maryland in the national semifinals Sunday night.

Unlike the first three games of the tournament when UConn won by an average of nearly 48 points, the Huskies got all they could handle from the seventh-seeded Flyers, who weren't intimidated by the top seed, for the game's first 20 minutes.

Trailing at the half for the first time in two seasons, UConn scored the first nine points of the second half during a 15-3 run to take a 58-47 lead with 13 minutes, 56 seconds left.

A little more than a minute later, Mosqueda-Lewis hit her fifth three-pointer of the game giving her 393 in her career to break the NCAA record for threes. That made it 62-49.

Dayton (28-7) couldn't get within seven the rest of the way thanks in a big part to Mosqueda-Lewis, who finished the game with seven three-pointers.

The loss ended the seventh-seeded Flyers' improbable run.

Maryland 58, Tennessee 48 -

Lexie Brown scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half, Brionna Jones added 14 points and nine rebounds and top-seeded Maryland advanced to its second straight Final Four.

Brown hit three three-pointers in the second half as the Terrapins (34-2) overcame their lowest-scoring first half of the season to knock Tennessee from the NCAAs for the second straight year.

It's the fifth Final Four appearance for the Terrapins and third under coach Brenda Frese.

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough added 12 points for the Terrapins, who held Tennessee to one field goal over the final 5 minutes. Maryland has won 28 straight games.

Ariel Massengale led Tennessee (30-6) with 16 points, but the Vols missed their chance at reaching the Final Four for the first time since 2008.

Maryland trailed by as many as five early in the second half, but that deficit was gone immediately after Walker-Kimbrough scored in transition - Maryland's first fast-break points - and followed with a three-pointer.