Spokane, Wash. • Oregon’s run to the Elite Eight last season was a delightful surprise. This year, the Ducks made it with a more businesslike attitude.
Asked if the team was elated to be returning to the regional finals after beating Central Michigan 83-69 on Saturday, guard Sabrina Ionescu replied: “Define elation.”
“We have high expectations of ourselves,” she said.
Ionescu just missed another triple-double with 16 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds for second-seeded Oregon, which jumped on No. 11 seed Central Michigan early in their Spokane Region semifinal and never really let up.
Ruthy Hebard had 23 points and 14 rebounds.
“This year it’s known we deserve to be where we are,” Ionescu said. “It’s more where we should be than jumping up for joy.”
Oregon coach Kelly Graves agreed.
“When we are 33-4, we have high expectations,” he said.
Lexi Bando added 14 points for Oregon (33-4), which won its 12th game in a row. The Ducks will play top-seeded Notre Dame in the regional final on Monday.
Tinara Moore had 23 points and 14 rebounds for Central Michigan (30-5), which won its first two NCAA Tournament games in program history this year. Presley Hudson added 15 points on 6-of-21 shooting.
In the other Spokane Regional game:
Notre Dame 90, Texas A&M 84 • In Spokane, Muffet McGraw checked through the list of all the things Notre Dame did poorly early on. Bad shot selection. Lack of rebounding. Not enough stops on defense.
“We got down big. We’ve been down in other games. We feel like we are poised and can come back,” McGraw said.
As McGraw expected, the top-seeded Fighting Irish did have a comeback waiting and it landed Notre Dame back on the cusp of another trip to the Final Four.
Arike Ogunbowale scored 17 of her 27 points in the second half and Marina Mabrey added 25, hitting a career-high seven 3-pointers, to help Notre Dame beat No. 4 seed Texas A&M.
Albany Regional
UConn 72, Duke 59 • In Albany, N.Y., Geno Auriemma and the UConn Huskies are in a familiar place — the Elite Eight.
Napheesa Collier had 16 points and 11 rebounds to help top-seed UConn beat Duke and advance to the regional finals for the 13th consecutive season.
The Huskies’ senior duo of Gabby Williams and Kia Nurse was key on the defensive end to help UConn to the win.
“We’re fortunate that our two seniors are two of the better defensive players in the country,” Auriemma said. “We can count on those two every game. Gabby’s going to play great every game. She plays at a certain level every game. Kia’s one of the toughest competitors we’ve had at Connecticut.”
Connecticut (35-0) will face defending national champion South Carolina on Monday night to try to advance to a record 11th straight Final Four.
South Carolina 79, Buffalo 63 • In Albany, Alexis Jennings scored 20 points, A’ja Wilson added 20 points and 13 rebounds, and South Carolina kept alive its quest to defend its title.
South Carolina (29-6), whose only losses this year have come against ranked teams, has won six straight.
Upstart Buffalo (29-6), just the third Mid-American Conference school to reach the Sweet 16, was among the final four teams to earn an at-large berth. It was the program’s second tournament appearance after a first-round exit two years ago.