Indianapolis >> Houston’s relentless defense confused and harassed Tennessee and carried the Cougars into their seventh Final Four and first since 2021, with L.J. Cryer scoring 17 points in a 69-50 victory on Sunday.

Emanuel Sharp scored 14 of his 16 points after halftime for top-seeded Houston (34-4) and was named the region’s Most Outstanding Player.

Houston extended the nation’s longest active winning streak to 17 games. The Cougars had been eliminated as a No. 1 seed in the Sweet 16 in each of the past two years, but this time coach Kelvin Sampson’s team has a shot at the program’s first national title.

The Cougars will face Cooper Flagg and five-time national champ Duke on Saturday in San Antonio — just a 3 1/2-hour drive from campus.

The Cougars have reached the national title game twice, losing in 1983 to North Carolina State and in 1984 to Georgetown in the Phi Slama Jama era.

Sharp made four 3-pointers and Joseph Tugler, who made the assist on Friday’s decisive basket against Purdue, had nine rebounds.

Chaz Lanier and Jordan Gainey scored 17 points apiece for the second-seeded Volunteers (30-8), who again fell short of the program’s first Final Four appearance. Coach Rick Barnes’ team was also eliminated in a regional final last year.

Houston won this one with a familiar formula.

The nation’s stingiest defense held the Vols to 15 first-half points, the fewest in an Elite Eight game since 1979. It also was the lowest first-half scoring total by any No. 1 or No. 2 seed in a March Madness game since seeding began in 1979.

When the Vols had a chance to cut the deficit to single digits in the second half, the nation’s top 3-point shooting team made three straight from beyond the arc to extend the margin to 17.

How bad was it for the Vols?

They made only 6 of 28 shots in the first 20 minutes and missed their first 14 3s before Zakai Ziegler ended the drought.

Women

South Carolina 54, Duke 50 >> Chloe Kitts scored 14 points and defending national champion South Carolina reached the Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament for a fifth straight year, beating Duke.

Coach Dawn Staley’s top-seeded Gamecocks are two wins away from becoming the first team to repeat as champions since UConn won four straight from 2013-16. South Carolina will play the winner of the Texas-TCU game that takes place Monday night.

The Final Four is Friday night in Tampa, Florida.

Second-seeded Duke was looking to get to its first national semifinals since 2006. That team lost in overtime to Maryland in the title game. The Blue Devils women were also looking to join the men’s program in the Final Four.

South Carolina (34-3) was stymied for most of the game by Duke’s stingy defense. The Gamecocks came in averaging 80.5 points, but points were difficult to come by Sunday.

UCLA 72, LSU 65 >> Lauren Betts had 17 points and seven rebounds despite spending the entire second quarter on the bench, and top overall seed UCLA reached its first Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament with a victory over LSU.

The 6-foot-7 Betts added six blocks for the Bruins (34-2), who will face the winner of Monday’s game between Southern California and UConn. The Final Four is Friday night in Tampa, Florida.

Gabriela Jaquez had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Bruins and Timea Gardiner finished with 15 points, helping to pick up the slack went Betts went to the bench after committing two first-quarter fouls.

“Credit to my teammates for holding it down while I was out,” Betts said during the trophy ceremony.

UCLA won a national title in 1978 in the pre-NCAA era of women’s basketball, but this was its first NCAA regional final victory in three tries.