By Chuck Schoffner
The Associated Press

Ready for another Connecticut-Tennessee championship game? It's still possible after Tennessee and Minnesota earned the last two spots in the women's Final Four with regional victories Tuesday night.

Minnesota's Janel McCarville, right, hugs teammate Lindsay Whalen near the end of the NCAA Mideast final game against Duke Tuesday. (AP photo)

Tennessee (30-3) will play Southeastern Conference rival LSU (27-7) in one national semifinal in New Orleans on Sunday night.

Connecticut (29-4), seeking its third straight NCAA title and fourth and five years, meets surprising Minnesota (25-8) in the other.

If Connecticut and Tennessee win, they would meet in the title game for the third time in five years and the fourth time since 1995. UConn won each of those previous matchups, including a 73-68 victory last year. The Huskies also beat the Lady Vols in the 2002 semifinals.

But the field also has some fresh faces with Minnesota and LSU making it for the first time.

Minnesota, the No. 7 seed in the Mideast, ended top-seeded Duke's championship dream with an 82-75 victory. The Gophers are the lowest seeded team to reach the season's last weekend since Arkansas got in as a No. 9 in 1998.

"This definitely has not sunk in yet," said Minnesota coach Pam Borton, who's in her second season with the Gophers.

LSU's Sue Gunter had to wait until her 40th year of coaching to earn a Final Four berth and she hasn't even been around to enjoy the ride. Gunter has a respiratory ailment that limits her to practice and film sessions and assistant Pokey Chatman has been running the team in games.

With Gunter at home in Baton Rouge, the Lady Tigers made it with a 62-60 victory over Georgia in the West Regional final in Seattle on Monday night.

Tennessee, the only No. 1 seed to survive the first four rounds, beat Stanford 62-60 on Tasha Butts' spinning shot with 1.7 seconds left Tuesday night to win the Midwest Regional. The Lady Vols are in the Final Four for the 15th time and are going for their seventh national championship. But they haven't won it all since 1998.

Connecticut earned a record fifth straight Final Four trip with a 66-49 victory over top-seeded Penn State in the East Regional final on Monday night.

Lindsay Whalen has returned from a broken hand to lead the postseason run for Minnesota, which was 8-20 when she was a freshman three years ago. The Gophers ended up beating the top three seeds in their region to reach the Final Four, knocking off No. 2 Kansas State and No. 3 Boston College before the stunner against Duke.

Whalen is averaging 22 points in the tournament, while Janel McCarville is averaging 19.8 points and 17 rebounds.

Connecticut, which has won 16 straight NCAA tournament games, is coming full circle with its trip to New Orleans. The Big Easy is where UConn made its first Final Four appearance back in 1991, long before coach Geno Auriemma's program began challenging Tennessee for supremacy in the sport.

This will be the eighth appearance for the Huskies, who hushed any notion that they were vulnerable after a rocky regular season.

In its thrashing of Penn State, UConn put together its fourth straight outstanding performance on defense and shot 60 percent in the second half.

Gunter's situation and the school's proximity to New Orleans could make LSU the sentimental favorite. And that's not all the Lady Tigers have going for them.

Sophomore Seimone Augustus is the leading scorer in the NCAA tournament with a 26.3 average after getting 29 in the victory over Georgia. Augustus also lit up top-seeded Texas for 29 in the regional semifinals and is shooting 65.6 percent in the tournament.

"We are a part of history," Augustus said. "We gave coach Gunter her first Final Four and one for Pokey Chatman, too."