GREENSBORO, N.C. — Connecticut forward Tina Charles had the basketball in her hands and the top-ranked Huskies’ season resting on her fingertips. She was at the foul line shooting free throws down the stretch in a taut N.C.A.A. tournament regional final against No. 2-seed Rutgers.
It was not how Huskies Coach Geno Auriemma would have drawn it up, but it was exactly as Charles had called it. Before a game March 1 at DePaul, Auriemma had designed a play in the event the Huskies were behind in the final seconds and needed to get to the free-throw line. He told Charles, the team’s worst foul shooter, that he wanted her far from the action.
“That’s all right, Coach,” Charles said she told him. “I’m going to make the free throws when it counts.”
At Greensboro Coliseum on Tuesday night, she was true to her word. Charles made all four free throws she tried in the final 78 seconds as the Huskies overcame a double-digit deficit to defeat Rutgers, 66-56, in front of a crowd of 4,623.
The Huskies (36-1) trailed for the first 33 minutes, but still found a way to advance to their first Final Four since winning the 2004 national title. They will play Stanford next week in Tampa, Fla.
The Scarlet Knights (27-7), who handed the Huskies their only loss in February before losing to them by 20 points last month, came up achingly short in their bid to become the third No. 2 seed to earn a berth to Tampa, after L.S.U. and Stanford.
Connecticut prevailed despite making only one 3-pointer in the first half and getting a paltry 7 points from its sensational freshman forward Maya Moore.
The Huskies won because of Charles, who lost her starting job to Brittany Hunter as a result of her inconsistent practice habits.
After the game, Charles got a hug from Auriemma. “He told me I still stink,” she said, “but he was smiling. As long as he’s smiling, that’s good.”
It was a different scene in the Rutgers locker room, which was quiet except for the sobs. Katie Adams, a senior reserve, was crying into the uniform of the junior center Kia Vaughn, who held Adams close and gently rocked her.
On the eve of the game, Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer said her team was going to have to be on high alert if it wanted to survive to play another week. Her players clearly heard her warning.
They played with an urgency that had been missing in their 53-42 victory against George Washington in a regional semifinal two days earlier.
The Huskies’ Ketia Swanier took the game’s first shot and missed, but the senior forward Essence Carson pulled down the rebound, setting the tone for the first half. Before the game was five minutes old, Carson had 7 points, 2 defensive rebounds and 1 steal, and the Scarlet Knights enjoyed an 11-6 lead. Playing with the precision of a team possessed, Rutgers stretched its advantage to 13 on a steal by Epiphanny Prince and a 3-pointer by Brittany Ray.
When Prince made two free throws with 8 minutes 11 seconds left in the first half after being fouled by Charles, Rutgers’s advantage was 14 points. It was the largest deficit the Huskies had faced since they trailed by 17 in the second half at DePaul in March. Connecticut came back to beat the Blue Demons, 77-76, that night, and they chipped away at Rutgers’s lead, whittling it to 5, at 32-27, by halftime.
Connecticut had 3 offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes. Led by Carson, the Scarlet Knights had 12 defensive boards in that span. Carson led all players at intermission with 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting. She had more points than the Huskies backcourt of Swanier and Renee Montgomery, which was a combined 2 for 13 from the field.
Carson, with a little help from her teammates, smothered Moore like gravy on a biscuit. She also produced 4 of her 12 rebounds in the first half, her intensity providing the charge that shocked Connecticut.
It was a see-saw battle to the finish, but in the end, Connecticut was the one standing on the ladder, cutting down the net. It was a familiar scene, but one the Huskies had to find especially satisfying this year.