Tampa, Fla. — On the painful-o-meter, this one ranks right there with the recent gutbusters for the UConn Huskies at the Final Four.

Two years ago: loss to Mississippi State at the buzzer.

Last year: Loss to Notre Dame in overtime at the buzzer.

And Friday night? Oy. Little consolation that this didn't happen at the final horn. Because the Huskies gave it way well before.

Another successful season by any rational standard nonetheless ended in misery for the Huskies, who squandered a nine-point lead in the fourth period and fell to Notre Dame, 81-76, before 20,062 at Amalie Arena.

Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw danced on the floor at game's end, celebrating her team's berth in the national championship game Sunday night against Baylor. UConn ended its season with 35 wins and three losses.

"Sometimes we try to make the game really, really complicated. It's not," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "They gave us a chance to win the game, and we weren't good enough to win it. There's nothing wrong with that. They were better than us. When they were down nine, they could have missed the next five shots, we would have gone up 17, but they didn't. Why? Because they're defending national champions, they have five All-Americans who are really, really good. I remember being in that situation a couple times."

Napheesa Collier's basket with 7:52 remaining gave UConn a 64-55 lead, capping a 10-3 run to open the fourth period. All looked hopeful, particularly with Katie Lou Samuelson's sudden bout with accuracy. Samuelson, scoreless in the first half, had 15 points in the third period and made a three-pointer just before Collier's basket.

And then ... poof.

"Well, when we got up nine, two things we knew were going to happen. One, they're going to pass it to Arike (Ogunbowale) and she's going to go one-on-one and score. Two, they're going to throw it into the post, to whoever Megan (Walker) is guarding, because there's a huge mismatch in there. That's exactly what they did," Auriemma said. "We knew coming in there's things Notre Dame does that we don't have an answer for."

Samuelson missed an open left-handed layup with UConn up 66-63, a play that prompted Auriemma to grab his head with both hands. Notre Dame gathered the rebound and tied the game on its next possession thanks to an offensive rebound and Marina Mabrey's ensuing three.

It would have been 68-63 had Samuelson made the layup. Instead, the game was tied.

UConn's last lead (73-72) came with 1:40 left on Samuelson's layup. The Irish went on a nine-point run after that, sending UConn home for the second straight season.

"We just weren't good enough tonight to do it. I mean, it's not anything other than they were just better than us tonight," Auriemma said. "They were better than us when the season started and they were better than us tonight. They had more good players play better and contribute more than we did. That's just the way the world is. They deserved to win, and we didn't do quite enough to win. That's it."

Samuelson led UConn with 20 points – all in the second half. Collier added 15 with 13 rebounds. The two finished their UConn careers with five losses, three of which came at the Final Four.

Christyn Williams had 19 and Walker 14 for the Huskies, who went 8-28 from three-point range.

Ogunbowale led Notre Dame with 23 points, eight of which came in the final four minutes. Jessica Shepard had 20 and 13 rebounds, including a jumper with 1:24 left that gave the Irish (35-3) the lead for good. Brianna Turner had 15 points and 13 rebounds, Mabrey had 12 and Jackie Young added 11.

"Being up nine in the fourth quarter is a good position to be in," Collier said. "We did feel confident in that moment. Then after that, we weren't making the points we needed to and maintain the lead and extend the lead."

m.dimauro@theday.com