GREENSBORO, N.C. - Rutgers didn’t have much of a reason to believe it could be a Final Four team a few months ago.

The Scarlet Knights didn’t have any seniors, or seemingly any chance. Not without Cappie Pondexter, not after starting the season by losing four of seven. And not with a difficult draw in the NCAA tournament.

Believe now, Rutgers.

The scrappy Scarlet Knights are headed to their second Final Four, using a dominating performance from center Kia Vaughn and inspired play from the rest of the roster to claim a 64-45 victory over Arizona State on Monday night in the Greensboro Regional finals.

“It was sort of like a dream where we just felt ... as long as we stuck to our game plan — and that’s to continue to believe in ourselves — then we can continue to get it done,” forward Essence Carson said. “This entire run through the NCAA tournament has been sort of unreal, but at the same time we understand that all the hard work we put in put us there.”

Vaughn had 17 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks while owning the lane. Matee Ajavon had 20 points, Carson added 11 and Epiphanny Prince had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Scarlet Knights (26-8), who led by 24 and held a 48-26 rebounding advantage in winning their seventh straight.

“They put up a fight, they put up a good one,” said Vaughn, who at 6-foot-4 was two inches taller than primary defender Aubree Johnson. “I had the advantage only because I kept working. ... They didn’t let me get anything easy. I worked hard. I really did work. I had elbows everywhere, in the back. ... I just had to be strong and take control.”

And largely because the Sun Devils had no answer inside for Vaughn, the Scarlet Knights can pack for Cleveland, where they will face LSU on Sunday in the Final Four. LSU beat Connecticut 73-50 to advance from the Fresno Regional.

“We definitely tried to go at her, but we didn’t go at her very smart,” said Aubree Johnson, who had two of her shots blocked by Vaughn. “She’s obviously a great shot blocker.”

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The fourth-seeded Scarlet Knights almost saw their season end Saturday when top-seeded Duke had a chance to win it in the final second. But ACC player of the year Lindsey Harding missed two free throws with 0.1 second left and Rutgers escaped with a stunning 53-52 upset.

The youthful Knights — who have five freshmen on the roster — had no trouble dodging a letdown, thoroughly dominating third-seeded Arizona State and pulling another upset to reach their first Final Four since 2000.

“This has to be right there at the top, if not the top,” coach C. Vivian Stringer said.

The players hammed it up at midcourt, dancing as they donned championship caps and T-shirts while thanking the several hundred fans who made the trip to Tobacco Road.

Stringer, the first coach to lead three programs to the Final Four, is headed to college basketball’s biggest stage for the fourth time.

This run came with a Rutgers team that became the lowest seed to reach the Final Four since 2004, when both fourth-seeded LSU and seventh-seeded Minnesota advanced that far.

This game was supposed to be a rematch of a November game in the Virgin Islands, but the game was canceled when the 15-year-old brother of Johnson died of an enlarged heart, and players and coaches from both sides credited fate with setting up this matchup.