There would be no net-cutting ceremonies, only an impromptu victory dance in front of the section holding the UConn band preceded by Kalana Greene hurling the ball in the air as time ran out on the scoreboard.

A ladder was provided but it was taken away when tournament officials were informed that UConn wasn't planning to cut the nets down. That will come only if UConn wins its next two games to secure the program's sixth national title.

As they have done all season, the "Big Three" of Maya Moore (25 points, nine rebounds), Renee Montgomery (22 points), Tina Charles (18 points, 13 rebounds) led the way for the Huskies against an Arizona State team that did not back down from the Huskies.

In the end, UConn just had too much speed and offensive explosiveness for Arizona State to handle. UConn hit six straight shots in one stretch in the second half to finally put away ASU.

"Everybody believes we are capable of going on a run like you saw," said Moore, who became the first UConn player to score at least 700 points in a season. "It is not necessarily something we are always conscious of but any time a team scores on us and they get a run, we are competitive. That is the kind of basketball we are trying to play. When they score, we are trying to score. That's just our style and we are comfortable playing that way."

ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne thought her team could handle UConn's vaunted transition offense but was quick to admit that she was wrong after the game.

"They were so quick in transition," Turner Thorne said. "I don't know why we couldn't find Moore and we were soft. I thought we could do better, that is usually a strength of ours taking away transition (baskets)."

UConn will play Stanford in the national semifinals on Sunday. Stanford ended UConn's national championship hopes in last year's Final Four.

Ticket and travel information will be on the UConn web site in the morning.