St. Louis, MO (My Sportsbook) - Renee Montgomery posted 26 points, six assists and four steals, as the undefeated Connecticut Huskies moved a step closer to their sixth national title with a dominating 83-64 Final Four victory over Stanford at the Scottrade Center.
Connecticut (38-0), which reeled off four victories by an average margin of 27.5 points in the Trenton Regional, will face fellow Big East foe Louisville in the championship contest on Tuesday.
The third-seeded Cardinals upset top-seeded Oklahoma in the other Final Four contest, but UConn hammered Louisville by a combined 67 points in two earlier bouts this season.
"I wish we were playing anybody but Louisville Tuesday night. Anybody. I don't care who," UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said. "The last team you want to play is a team that you beat the way we beat them the two times we played them."
Of the previous five programs that entered the Final Four undefeated, only the 1989-90 Louisiana Tech squad did not win the title.
Maya Moore, who set the Huskies' single-season scoring record this season, chipped in 24 points and eight rebounds, while Tina Charles added eight points and 12 caroms in yet another lopsided victory.
Stanford (33-5), which had a 20-game winning streak coming in, was the last team to hand the Huskies a loss. The second-seeded Cardinal upended the perennial power in last year's Final Four before falling to Tennessee in the title game, but the Pac-10 champions were no match this time around.
"We have a very, very young team and we do not have the guard leadership that Connecticut had," Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. "For our team to be playing in the Final Four with what we've been through, I'm exceedingly proud."
Jayne Appel, coming off a 46-point effort in the Berkeley Regional final, was the only offensive threat for the Cardinal, scoring 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting in the loss.
Appel netted back-to-back field goals near the midway point of the first half to cap a 10-2 Stanford run. Her last bucket resulted in a 14-13 lead, but it was the last time UConn was on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
Montgomery scored nine of her 15 first-half points in the Huskies subsequent 13-2 spurt that helped the Big East champs take a 37-24 advantage into the locker room.
"My thought process was simple the whole game," Montgomery said. "Just get a score and a stop. And the whole time, every time they shot the ball, if it went in or didn't go in, I was thinking we've got to get the ball up the floor quick."
Moore's three-pointer to open the second half scoring was a sign of things to come, as back-to-back treys by Tiffany Hayes helped the Huskies double-up their opponent, 56-28, with 13 minutes to play.
The margin didn't dip below 20 points until Appel made a pair of free throws with less than five minutes left, but by that time, the Huskies were already getting ready for Tuesday.