TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Three of four teams in the women’s Final Four are No. 1 seeds. None of the four have lost more than three games this season. All but one have been the top-ranked team in the country at some point.
That’s how strong the national semifinals are this year, with powerhouses UCLA, Texas, South Carolina and UConn competing in Tampa, Florida, for a national championship.
“Whoever gets through this semifinal and final will have done it against the best of the best,” said Texas coach Vic Schaefer, who has led his second school to the Final Four after getting Mississippi State there in 2017 and 2018. “So I think for all of us, we all understand it. It’s hard to do.
UCLA, South Carolina and Texas are No. 1 seeds. UConn is a No. 2 seed but has certainly looked the part of a top-seeded team behind Paige Bueckers — perhaps the biggest star in the tournament who’s the primary reason the Huskies are the betting favorite to win it all.
Texas (35-3) and South Carolina (34-3) are scheduled to face each other for the fourth time this season in the first of two semifinals on Friday. UConn (35-3) will play UCLA (34-2) in the other.
The championship game is on Sunday.
Here are a few things to know as the Final Four begins.
UConn guard Paige Bueckers, left, places confetti onto head coach Geno Auriemma, front right, after the team’s win over Southern California in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Monday, March 31, 2025, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
Bueckers’ last shot at a national championship
Bueckers is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in next month’s WNBA draft. First, she gets one more shot at the national championship that has eluded her during her career.
Bueckers earned AP All-America honors this season and was the Big East player of the year for the third time. She has UConn back in the Final Four for the second straight year after the Huskies were beaten by Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the semis last year.
She has averaged 35 points in her last three March Madness games, including career highs of 40 points and six 3-pointers in the Huskies’ 82-59 rout of Oklahoma in the Sweet 16.
“I think last year I got so caught up in the pressures and the stakes of it all,” Bueckers said, “and trying to be perfect and worrying about the wrong things … It’s the last year regardless of what happens. So I’m just enjoying this last weekend.”
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley talks to guard Te-Hina Paopao (0) during practice at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Gamecocks trying to be first repeat champs since UConn
Dawn Staley has her team in its fifth straight Final Four, and defending champion South Carolina is trying to become the first repeat national champion since the Huskies won four straight from 2013 to 2016. That Huskies four-peat was coach Geno Auriemma’s last title, though he has the Huskies in the Final Four for a record 24th time.
The Gamecocks, who went undefeated last season en route to the program’s third title, beat Texas twice this season but have been on the ropes a bit during the tournament.
The Gamecocks went back and forth with Maryland in the Sweet 16 before finally doing enough in the final few minutes to put it away. They beat Duke by four points in the Elite Eight despite their offense being mostly stymied.
“I think we experienced a lot of things we didn’t experience last year,” said senior guard Te-Hina Paopao. “Every time we lost or did something, we learned from that opportunity and have grown from that opportunity.”
LSU guard Last-Tear Poa (13), forward Sa’Myah Smith (5) and UCLA center Lauren Betts (51) go after a rebound during the second half in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
Star center Lauren Betts has UCLA in its first Final Four
UCLA won a national title in 1978 in the pre-NCAA era of women’s basketball but made its first Final Four in three tries.
Lauren Betts has been one of the most impactful players of the tournament, leading the Bruins to the semis with 21.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while shooting 75% from the field.
The 6-foot- 7 center had 17 points, seven rebounds and six blocks against LSU in the Elite Eight despite sitting the entire second quarter in foul trouble.
The junior’s teammates have praised her growth this season.
“I think it’s just me finally realizing the player I am,” Betts said. “I think a lot of it has to do with not just the basketball side but the mental work that I’ve done this past season. … Also I have to give a lot of credit to this program and the amount of confidence that they’ve given me.”
Detroit Red Wings right wing Alex DeBrincat (93) is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Florida Panthers, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Marco Kasper scored his second goal of the game at 3:22 of overtime to give the Detroit Red Wings a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night.
Patrick Kane and Tyler Motte also scored for Detroit. Alex Lyon stopped 18 shots to help the Red Wings keep alive their slim playoff hopes.
Gage Goncalves scored twice and Anthony Cirelli had a goal and two points for Lightning. Brandon Hagel had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 22 saves.
Cirelli scored on a partial breakaway 1:01 into the game.
Kane tied it at 4:07 of the second period. Detroit took the lead with 3:23 left in the second when a shot from the point hit the end boards and caromed back to the crease where Motte poked it in.
Goncalves pulled Tampa Bay even 1:15 later, poking in a loose puck in the paint before Lyon could cover it up. Goncalves scored his second of the night 1:38 into the third for his first career multi-goal game.
Kasper tied it off the rush with 7:01 left in the third.
Takeaways
Red Wings: D Simon Arvidsson appeared in his 100th career game. … The start for Lyon was his first since March 27 at Ottawa when he was pulled after allowing three goals on seven shots.
Lightning: Center Luke Glendening will miss the rest of the regular season with an undisclosed injury after leaving Wednesday’s game. … RW Nikita Kucherov appeared in his 800th career game.
Key moment
Oliver Bjorkstrand had a chance in close on his backhand that was partially blocked by Ben Chiarot then hit off the crossbar and went out of play with 2:46 left to play with the game tied 3-3.
Key stat
Detroit is trying to avoid missing the playoffs for a ninth consecutive season. The last time the Red Wings made the playoffs they were eliminated by Tampa Bay in the opening round in 2016.
Up next
Tampa Bay hosts Buffalo on Sunday, and Detroit hosts Dallas on Monday.
Tampa Bay Rays’ Danny Jansen, right, celebrates his two-run home run off Atlanta Braves pitcher Bryce Elder with Kameron Misner (26) during the fourth inning of a baseball game Friday, April 11, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Danny Jansen hit his first home run of the season and drove in four runs, Christopher Morel also homered and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Atlanta Braves 6-3 on Friday night.
Jansen, who had one hit in his first 27 at-bats through the Rays’ first 12 games, hit a two-run homer on a first-pitch sinker from Bryce Elder in the fourth inning, scoring Kameron Misner. In his next at-bat in the sixth, the 29-year-old catcher hit an RBI single to center and added a ground-rule double in the eighth that scored another run.
Morel hit a solo shot in the sixth and finished with three hits.
Rays starter Taj Bradley (2-0) struggled to get through the first, needing 32 pitches to get through the inning and allowing one run. Atlanta’s Matt Olson drove in Austin Riley with a single to give the Braves a 1-0 lead before Bradley struck out Bryan De La Cruz and Jarred Kelenic with the bases loaded to end the threat.
Bradley worked six innings and limited Atlanta to one run on five hits, with two walks and seven strikeouts.
The Braves, who didn’t arrive at their Tampa Bay-area hotel until 4:45 a.m. after a rain-delayed, extra-inning win over Philadelphia on Thursday night, tried to rally late.
Bernhard Langer, of Germany, waves to the gallery on the 18th green during the second round at the Masters golf tournament, Friday, April 11, 2025, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A look at the key hole Friday in the second round of the Masters:
HOLE: 18.
YARDAGE: 465.
PAR: 4.
STROKE AVERAGE: 4.579
RANK: 1
KEY FACT: Justin Rose bumped a fairway metal up the slope left of the green and holed the putt for par and a 1-under 71 that gave him a one-shot lead at the midway point. Others weren’t so fortunate as the 18th played into a strong wind later in the afternoon. Bernhard Langer lipped out a 10-foot par putt that would have made him the oldest player to make the Masters cut in the final appearance by the 67-year-old, two-time champion. Brooks Koepka had to play a second ball off the tee and three-putted from 12 feet for an 8 to miss the cut by two shots. And Scottie Scheffler had to save bogey after hitting his tee shot under a magnolia tree. Only two players made birdie.
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