Hartford, Conn. ? Diana Taurasi has been through this so often she didn’t even bother with the cap, instead just flinging it into the stands.

Let some happy Connecticut fan wear it. Taurasi had just helped Connecticut earn an unprecedented fifth straight trip to the Final Four, and she didn’t need any souvenirs.

The feeling alone was enough.

Taurasi scored 27 points in her last game in front of the home fans, and Connecticut blew the game open in the second half to beat Penn State, 66-49, Monday night in the East Regional final.

“It’s just unbelievable, really,” said Taurasi, the regional MVP. “To try to put it into words kind of takes away from it.”

Taurasi did enough talking with her play, as did teammate Barbara Turner, who scored 26 points. Together, they kept the Huskies (29-4) in the running for a third straight national championship and fourth in five years.

Only Tennessee has won three in a row, from 1996 through 1998.

“This is the way it should be,” Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. “To me, D needs to be in the Final Four her senior year. Her senior year should not end in any other way, shape or form without her being in the Final Four.”

It will be a Connecticut double at the Final Four because the men’s team qualified Saturday, making UConn the fifth school to send both teams in the same year.

Connecticut's Diana Taurasi shows the off the spoils of the traditional net-cutting ceremony following the Huskies' 66-49 victory over Penn State. With the win Monday in Hartford, Conn., UConn advanced to its fifth straight Final Four.

The women will play the winner of tonight’s Duke-Minnesota game in the national semifinals in New Orleans on Sunday night. Duke would have teams in both Final Fours if the Blue Devils win that game.

“I just think we were tougher,” Taurasi said. “We outrebounded them, we made more plays. When you get this far, it’s just a matter who has the tougher team, and that was us tonight.”

Top-seeded Penn State (28-6), seeking its second Final Four trip, buckled under Connecticut’s intense defensive pressure in the first half, but recovered to make a run at the second-seeded Huskies after they opened a 21-point lead midway through the second half.

The Lions got the lead down to nine before Turner and Taurasi combined for nine straight points to return the momentum to UConn, which had the backing of a boisterous crowd at its second home, the Hartford Civic Center.

While Taurasi is a two-time All-American, Turner looked the part in this one, shooting 8-for-11 and adding six rebounds and three assists. She was 4-for-5 from three-point range, including one she banked in from the top of the key in the first half.

“That was the biggest problem we had. We had no answer for (Turner),” Penn State coach Rene Portland said.