Five bold women's Final Four predictions: Is UConn superstar good for 35+ points?

70 points will be enough to win Friday (and perhaps Sunday, too)

The four teams remaining all rank in the top 18 in points scored per game. So will these games be high scoring? Perhaps not.

Each team also ranks within the top 44 of points allowed per game, with UConn leading the nation at just 52 points. 

In the three South Carolina-Texas games this season, neither team scored more than 67 points. Those teams average 79.8 and 78.4 points, respectively. But 70 points should be plenty enough for any of these four teams to win Friday.

UCLA (34-2) has one of the top defenders in the women's game in 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts (20 PPG, 9.6 RPG), the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. She excels offensively, too.

"Defense is something I've always taken a lot of pride in," she said, per the UCLA athletics site. "Going into every single game, that's honestly my biggest priority — how can I stop the person in front of me?"

UCLA's only losses this season came by 11 and 13 points — both against Southern Cal when it had superstar JuJu Watkins, who suffered a season-ending injury during the tournament.

Texas evens the series

Texas (35-3) and defending champion South Carolina (34-3) have already played each other three times this season, with the Gamecocks winning twice.

Beating a team three times in one season is extremely difficult for any team, so expect Madison Booker (16.5 PPG, 6.8 RPG), Taylor Jones (12.1 PPG, 6.9 RPG) and Texas to end South Carolina's chances at back-to-back championships.

Per FanDuel, however, the Longhorns are 4.5-point underdogs.

South Carolina's MiLaysia Fulwiley does something spectacular

The Gamecocks' point guard and team's second-leading scorer (11.9 PPG) seems to always have something up her sleeve in the tournament. Her 2024 tournament highlights wowed fans, teammates and opponents alike. 

In a Sweet 16 win against Maryland in this season's tournament, she wowed Terps coach Brenda Frese.

“No one in the country has anyone to match that type of speed,” the coach said. “We were trying to corral her with two or three players. ... She played 20 minutes and had 23 points. We had no answer for her. That’s how elite she is with her speed.”

Whether it's a flashy pass, a Euro-step layup or a buzzer-beating three, Fulwiley knows how to put on a show when the calendar flips to March and April. Expect the spectacular against Texas.

39-year drought will be snapped

The last time Texas earned a hoops title was 1986, when the price of gas was 93 cents a gallon (h/t CNBC). Expect the Longhorns to end that drought, with the trio of Booker, Jones and Rori Harmon overcoming Bueckers and UConn.

Sunday's title game is at 3 p.m. ET (ABC).