INDIANAPOLIS—The relentlessness of the Connecticut dynasty is mesmerizing, for spectators and opponents alike.

It produces either admiration for what the Huskies do, and how they do it, or fatigue. Sometimes a bit of both.

Even in the final minutes of UConn’s 80-51 win over Oregon State Sunday in the NCAA national semifinals, Geno Auriemma was treating a timeout like an audition for a two-point game his team hasn’t come close to experiencing all season.

In running their season record to 37-0, the Huskies stretched their winning streak to 74 games.

In setting up the possibility of an unprecedented four consecutive titles for its senior All-American trio of Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck, they took apart the Pac 12 champions with ruthless precision.

While Stewart was held scoreless for most of the first half after picking up two early fouls, Tuck fired off 13 quick points to set a familiar tempo.

On the other end of the floor, the Huskies denied Oregon State’s big center, Ruth Hamblin, entry passes in the paint, and harassed guard Jamie Weisner, the Pac 12 player of the year, to the point of exhaustion.

For those feeling weary of the predictability of the Huskies every time they step on the floor, consider their opponents.

“With a team like that you’ve got to kind of pick your poison,” Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. “And that team made us pay, no matter what we did. And that’s why they are who they are.”

UConn will aim for its 11th NCAA title—the same as the great UCLA men’s teams—on Tuesday against former Big East rival Syracuse, which cruised by Washington 80-59.

Even by the Huskies’ lofty standards, the idea of chasing a four-peat seems audacious. But it’s what Stewart had in mind when she arrived in Storrs in the fall of 2012. In what will be her final college game, that ambition is clearly within reach.

“I think it sunk in when we’re getting back to the locker room,” said Stewart, who finished with 16 points. “We know that we have 0ne game left. We’re exactly in the position that we want to be in.”

The only negative news for UConn is the loss of freshman starter Katie Lou Samuelson, who suffered a broken bone in her left foot in the first half and will be unavailable Tuesday.

The Beavers were making their triumphant debut in the Women’s Final Four, celebrating the best season in program history.

Not long after they took the floor, however, the separation between them and UConn was glaring.

An Oregon State team that led the country in field goal percentage defense (37.1) was no match for a UConn team that shot 71 percent in the first quarter alone. The Huskies shot 56.7 percent the rest of the way. Jefferson had 10 points and seven assists for UConn.

“They expose every weakness and make you pay for it, force you into things you don’t want to do,” said Weisner, who struggled in her final college game, shooting 4-for-15 from field and managed just nine points. Hamblin, also a senior, was just 4-for-11 with 10 points.

Rueck wasn’t alone among his fellow Women’s Final Four coaches in rejecting the notion amply made in the media this week that UConn’s dominance is not necessarily good for the women’s game.

After seeing the Huskies up close, he reaffirmed that it is.

“That team is built with not only extremely talented players but they’re built with high character players and there’s a maturity in that program,” Rueck said. “I don’t think they put up with a lot of nonsense.”

For all of the claims that UConn wins so much because it has so many great players, Auriemma will easily point out other schools that routinely sign classes as good as, and even better, than his.

The essential difference is what he does with those players, and the exceedingly stringent demands he makes on them, whether they’re in the game or not.

No player has been spared his withering treatment, even Stewart, whom he benched in a game last season right before UConn’s showdown with South Carolina. Auriemma did it, he said, “because she was acting like a 12-year-old.”

This is the same Stewart who brought Auriemma to a rare show of emotion Saturday when they were honored as the Associated Press player of the year and coach of the year, respectively.

His time with Stewart, Tuck and Jefferson is almost near an end, and there’s a certain wistfulness in his voice when he talks about what he sees on the horizon.

“I don’t want to sound like an old guy who’s been coaching a long time,” Auriemma said. “So it’s going to come across like that, I’m sure. But recruiting enthusiastic kids is harder than it’s ever been.”

He rattled off a litany of familiar complaints: bad body language, inattentiveness, a lack of enthusiasm, the influence of “people just being really cool” on major televised sports and a “me, me, me” mentality.

“I’d rather lose than watch kids play the way some kids play. They’re allowed to get away with just whatever and they’re always thinking about themselves. I don’t score, so why should I be happy? I’m not getting enough minutes, why should I be happy? That’s the kind of world we live in today.

“When I look at my team, they know this. When I watch game film, I’m checking what’s going on the bench. If somebody is asleep over there, if somebody doesn’t care, if somebody’s not engaged in the game, they will never get in the game. Ever.

“And they know that. They know I’m not kidding. . . . You’re playing on the best team in the country and you’re going to mope, seriously? That’s the way we handle it. There’s nobody moping.”

Syracuse (30-7) used stellar 3-point shooting and stifling pressure defense to put away Washington (26-11), whose presence gave the Pac 12 two teams at the Women’s Final Four for the first time.

Talia Walton scored 29 points for Washington, including 8-for-9 from behind the arc. But the Orange limited Huskies All-American Kelsey Plum, who averages 26 points, to only 17, and forced her into six turnovers. Briana Day led a balanced Syracuse attack with 15 points.

When asked if he’s going to press against UConn, Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman didn’t waver. His team has reached the ACC finals, upset No. 1 seed South Carolina and outlasted Tennessee this way.

“I don’t know if we can play any other way right now,” he said. “I don’t think we can get to the last game of the season and change the way we play.”