For 20 minutes on Friday, No. 4 seed North Carolina gave UConn one of its toughest tests of the season.
But the end result for the No. 1 Huskies was the same as usual — a dominant win over a quality opponent to advance in the NCAA tournament. UConn took over the second half and ultimately cruised to a 63-42 win to eliminate North Carolina and advance to the Elite Eight.
With the win, UConn improved to 37-0 and moved within three wins of a second consecutive NCAA championship.
North Carolina took a 13-12 lead into the second quarter and held UConn to a season-low in points at halftime as the Hukies carried a 28-20 lead into the break. But UConn clamped down on defense after halftime with a 12-0 run to start the third quarter. North Carolina didn’t score in the stanza until a layup with 4:22 remaining.
From there, the rout was on, and UConn secured another double-digit win against a ranked opponent.
Friday was Sarah Strong’s time to shine. Following a career-high tying 34 points form Azzi Fudd in a second-round win over Syracuse, Strong led effort against North Carolina with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Up next for UConn is a sixth-seeded Notre Dame team featuring two-way force Hannah Hidalgo. Hidalgo finished three assists short of a quadruple-double with 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals and 7 assists in an upset of No. 2 Vanderbilt earlier Friday. She’s been arguably the best player in the NCAA tournament. But she hasn’t faced anything like UConn yet.
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