Huskies dig deep to secure victory Despite a shaky performance, Connecticut beat North Carolina State in the East Regional semifinal, 72-58.

PITTSBURGH — Defending champion Connecticut has held its ground for now in the shifting landscape of the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

However, the top-seeded Huskies had to survive some shaky footing themselves in the second half yesterday before emerging with a 72-58 victory over No. 4 seed North Carolina State in an NCAA East Regional semifinal game in the Mellon Arena.

"I think there were two games," said Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, whose team held a 45-26 halftime lead. "We went into the locker room with a pretty good feeling about ourselves because we did a lot of good things. We came out in the second half, and right from the beginning, we struggled."

Still, the Huskies' advantage never slipped below nine points in the final 20 minutes.

Connecticut's triumph occurred after third-seeded Louisiana Tech beat surprising Missouri, the 10th seed, 78-67, in the first game of a doubleheader before a crowd of 9,021. The attendance was the second best for the East semifinals in the NCAA tournament's 20-year history.

The Techsters (31-4) and Huskies (31-2) will meet tomorrow night (ESPN, 7 p.m.) to determine who will move on to St. Louis in the Women's Final Four, which begins Friday and concludes next Sunday. The three other regional representatives will also be determined tomorrow night.

Minutes before Connecticut took the floor yesterday, top-seeded Tennessee lost, 80-65, to Xavier in the Mideast Regional. A week ago, second-seeded Georgia, considered a title contender, as were the Volunteers, fell at home to Missouri.

Those upsets caused a concern among the Connecticut following about the fate of their own team, which had already lost senior all-Americans Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph to season-ending injuries.

However, the talent-rich Huskies have other weapons.

Yesterday, it was the backcourt duo of junior Sue Bird and freshman Diana Taurasi that carried them over the Wolfpack (22-11). Taurasi was exceptionally tough in the first half, when she scored 19 of her game-high 24 points and went 5 of 5 on three-point attempts. She also hit a trey with 2 minutes, 57 seconds left in the game that pushed Connecticut back to a comfortable lead of 71-58.

Bird, Taurasi and senior Kelly Schumacher got the Huskies off to a 12-0 lead that set the pace for the first half. Although North Carolina State would get back to within a basket at 18-16 near the 10-minute mark, the Huskies rolled to a 21-point lead late in the half.