by Michelle Richardson

UConn 75 Stanford 56: The Stanford Cardinal went into the Final Four and wanted to push for a victory this time and got to the NCAA finals but again failed for the third straight time since getting into the semi finals since 2010. It was too much Huskies for the Cardinal as the Huskies top scorers Breanna Stewart finished the game with 18 points and for Stanford Amber Orrange led with 16 points.

“It wouldn’t be fun if you didn’t beat teams that were any good” said UConn head coach Geno Auriemma “I think Women’s basketball needs rivalries like this,teams that aspire to be great and want to win championships”

Stanford star Chiney Ogwumike said it was an exciting year and her last at Stanford, “it’s been an amazing remarkable experience to have Stanford on my jersey one last time.” For head coach Tara VanDerveer it was just a tough game offensively and that the shots were not falling for the Cardinal, “we knew the biggest challenge for us was to score, we worked hard defensively, had a lot of good stops. Their size, when they went big, their size is really disruptive. Probably more than anything, they have very skilled players, play very well together” said VanDerveer.

Notre Dame 87 Maryland 61: The Fighting Irish’s Kayla McBride’s offense kept things going for Notre Dame with her 28 point leading performance. She was a one woman performing machine with those Harlem Globetrotter’s type behind the back dribbles and passes and quick cross overs before hitting the bucket.

For Maryland Brionna Jones finished with 16 points for the top scorer in the loss. For McBride in her senior year this is the one that makes her graduating year sweet finishing up a season in the Final Four with a big win “it means a lot as a senior, I am so proud of this team. We went through a lot of adversity, especially after losing Ace. We’re going to go in and look at the film and be ready for the game” said McBride.

Kentucky-UConn NCAA Finals: Willie Cauley-Stein of the UConn Huskies sat out of the semi finals game on Saturday. Cauley-Stein hurt his ankle in the tournament and made it worse playing on it against Louisville in the Regional semi final win and sat out in the win against Michigan last week.

The Huskies have proven one thing that they know how to do it without him and their prepared to play Kentucky without Cauley-Stein and that’s basketball. That’s the way the game works, one player can not decide whether their team is going to win or not.

This is the second time in the title in three years that Kentucky got here and two years ago they got here with a group of Freshman led by former Wildcat Anthony Davis who is now with the New Orleans Pelicans. The Wildcats now have their own crop of freshman and all we can say this game is really going to be very interesting on Monday night.

The Wildcats have a 29-10 record and the Huskies have a 31-8 record and the last time the Wildcats got in the finals they pretty much finished perfect and blanked everybody for the whole season. This game should be a razor thin margin win for either team it’s evenly matched and should up end being the best of the finales.

Michelle Richardson covered the NCAA for Sportstalk and will be back in the fall