Bridgeport — Geno Auriemma was sitting on the interview podium with three of his players late Saturday afternoon: Christyn Williams, Paige Bueckers and Olivia Nelson-Ododa.

And nothing against Bueckers, the marquee sophomore, but Auriemma, the UConn women's basketball coach, said he was thrilled for two of the players.

Two of the team's graduating seniors, Williams and Nelson-Ododa put their stamp on a 75-58 victory over Indiana in the Sweet 16 at Total Mortgage Arena, lifting the second-seeded Huskies to the Bridgeport Regional final Monday against No. 1 N.C. State.

"They've been through a lot in these four years in the NCAA tournament. They missed one (due to COVID-19) and they really played tonight like they didn't want the season to end," Auriemma said.

Williams tied Bueckers for the team lead in scoring with 15 points for UConn (28-5), shooting 7-for-11 and adding six rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block. She gave UConn the lead for the first time with a three-point play in the first quarter and generally played with the fervor to ignite an entire team.

Williams had six of the Huskies' points in a crucial 16-0 run to start the second half.

"Man, you're a senior and you're playing in the NCAA tournament," Auriemma said of Williams' efforts. "It's like you're fighting for your life, right? It's your last chance to make it work and you don't want to leave anything to chance. You want to make sure that you take care of all the things you're supposed to take care of. ... You have to exercise that control and that's what she's doing for the first time in her career."

Nelson-Ododa, meanwhile, had 10 points and 14 rebounds, including five offensive boards. She had three assists, two steals and a block. Nelson-Ododa combined with sophomore Aaliyah Edwards for 24 rebounds, 10 on offense. The Huskies outrebounded Indiana 39-27.

"I think throughout the season, rebounding has been a point of emphasis," Nelson-Ododa said. "Just going out there today, I think staying in an aggressive mentality and just keep attacking, keep crashing the boards, was really huge for us.

"I think these past four years have been pretty unusual, especially for me and Christyn (the only two four-year members of the team), but coming into a tournament, we don't take these games lightly. We definitely don't take it for granted. Just to be able to play together and get a win like this today really means a lot to us, just in terms of carrying on to the next game, too."

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

• Of the members of the UConn coaching staff, Indiana coach Teri Moren is best acquainted with associate coach Chris Dailey. Moren was the assistant coach at Butler from 1992-98, for part of that time under head coach June Olkowski, who played at Rutgers along with Dailey.

But Moren also has gotten to spend some time with Auriemma, starting with a chat they had at USA Basketball headquarters in Colorado Springs around 2017 or 2018, she said. Moren became the head coach at Indiana in 2014.

"He was nice enough to sit and just kind of chop it up," Moren said. "And I got to ask him some questions just about culture, building a program. He was so gracious and just nuggets that he would share with me in terms of what the build is like and not selling your soul and sticking to your disciplines and building your program based on the things that are important to you.

"I just remember thinking that one, he didn't have to do that and two, it was really a cool moment for me because we were just in the early build of this program at Indiana."

Fly high, Bluejays

• The Big East Conference got its second team through to the Elite 8, as UConn joined Creighton. Creighton, which finished third in the league behind UConn and Villanova, defeated Iowa State in the Sweet 16 Friday 76-68.

Creighton joins the 2017 Oregon team as the only No. 10 seeds ever in the Elite 8.

"Our league gets a bad rap, man," Auriemma said, asked of Creighton. "People love to do that. I don't know who gave (other conferences) the term Power 5. I know they have all the money. I know some of the schools in our league don't have anywhere close to what some of the schools in those other leagues have.

"But what they do have (in the Big East) is some damn good basketball players and I think it's proven out in this tournament. It's going to be even better next year because we've got a lot of these kids coming back on all these teams in the Big East.

"And Villanova is going to win a national championship on the men's side, too, just in case you were wondering."

v.fulkerson@theday.com