ST. LOUIS — Angel McCoughtry answered her coach's harsh halftime criticism with a performance that lifted Louisville into its first national championship game.

McCoughtry scored 14 of her 18 points in the second half and added 11 rebounds, helping the Cardinals crawl out of an early hole to beat Oklahoma, 61-59, in the national semifinals last night and end Courtney Paris' stellar career.

"Nobody expected us to be here," McCoughtry said. "We have not one high school All-American on our team, but these girls worked hard. I'm so proud of them."

Down 12 points at halftime, Louisville got back into the game with a 15-1 run while the Sooners' shooting went south — just 26.9 percent in the second half. Still, Oklahoma had a chance to win it in the final seconds with Nyeshia Stevenson's good look on a 3-point attempt from the left wing, but it rattled out.

"In my head, it was going in," Stevenson said. "I knew I was wide open. I was confident every second."

As was McCoughtry, even after missing her first seven shots of the game, prompting coach Jeff Walz's rebuke.

"I told Angel it was the worst I've seen her play," he said. "She was an embarrassment."

Keshia Hines added 10 rebounds and nine points for the Cardinals (34-4), who will face unbeaten and top-ranked Connecticut — an 83-64 winner over Stanford — in the final tomorrow night.

Out too soon, four-time All-American Paris now must fulfill her promise to pay back the cost of her four-year scholarship if the Sooners (32-5) failed to win the title. She left the court in tears after exchanging hugs with McCoughtry and huddling with her team for a final time.

"I do make good on the guarantee," said Paris, whose father is former NFL offensive lineman Bubba Paris. "Not today, though. Obviously, I don't have $64,000 waiting, but I do make good on it."

CONNECTICUT 83, STANFORD 64

ST. LOUIS — Geno Auriemma has coached perfect teams and national champions before. He's also worked with some of the best players in the history of women's basketball.

On the doorstep of another unbeaten season, the Connecticut coach wants to add senior guard Renee Montgomery and the rest of these Huskies to those lists.

"I don't want this team to come up short," Auriemma said. "I don't want them to stop playing. I wanted them to be in the championship game. You love when your best players, the ones who have given their heart and soul to the program and have accomplished so many things have a chance to win the last college game of the year."

Montgomery scored 26 points, Maya Moore added 24, and unbeaten UConn cruised to its first title game in five years with an 83-64 victory over Stanford last night.

UConn will face Big East rival Louisville tonight.

The Huskies (38-0) already have routed Louisville twice this year, including dismantling the Cardinals, 75-36, in the Big East tournament championship game in early March.

"I wish we were playing anyone but Louisville," Auriemma said. "Anyone, I don't care who. The last team you want to play is a team you beat the way we beat them the two times we beat them, especially the last time we played them."

The Huskies have won by nearly 31 points a game and not allowed a team to come within single digits.

With an imposing lineup that featured five starters over 6-feet, Stanford (33-5) was supposed to be an obstacle. The Cardinal were the last team to beat Connecticut, knocking them out of the Final Four last season.

UConn beat Stanford, 87-60, in the Final Four en route to its first undefeated season in 1995, and also went unbeaten in 2002. The Huskies also entered the NCAA tournament undefeated in 1997, but fell to Tennessee in the regional final.

Besides Connecticut, only the Lady Vols and Texas have run through a season unbeaten.