UConn’s big three and a stifling defense frustrated Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks en route to an overwhelming 82-59 victory in a historic win. With the victory, Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma won his 12th NCAA championship title. He has the most NCAA tournament championships of any coach in both men’s and women’s college basketball, ahead of UCLA’s legendary coach John Wooden, who has 10. And while UConn has dominated women’s college basketball since the early 2000’s fueled by star talent like Sue Bird, Diane Taurasi, Maya Moore, and Breanna Stewart, this was their first championship since 2016.

The Gamecocks were looking to avenge an 87-58 drubbing in February at the hands of UConn. South Carolina started strong, but the Huskies defense and the combined efforts of Paige Bueckers, Sarah Strong, Azzi Fudd and their teammates was too much to overcome. Connecticut finishes the season with a 37-3 record while the Gamecocks close out their year with 35 wins against 4 losses.

UConn Comes Out Quickly

After an initial promising South Carolina start, UConn’s smothering defense resulted in numerous Gamecocks missed shots and turnovers and the first quarter ended with the Huskies up by five They were led early by Fudd’s amazing shooting display and Strong’s gritty inside play and fierce rebounding. They extended that lead to 10 at halftime and never looked back.

South Carolina only shot 34% from the field and committed 11 turnovers. Their offense could never find it’s rhythm with the lane shutdown by Strong and Jana El Alfy’s intense inside pressure and the smothering exterior defense of Bueckers, Fudd, Kaitlyn Chen, Ashlynn Shade, and KK Arnold.

Second Half and Individual Performances

Fudd and Strong hit back-to-back threes at the beginning of the third quarter and the outcome was no longer in doubt. The Huskies would go on to outscore the Gamecocks 46–33 in the second half. With 1.32 left in the contest coach Auriemma pulled his starters to the thunderous applause of the supportive UConn crowd.

Strong and Fudd would lead all scorers with 24 points and Strong with her dominant performance would pull down 15 rebounds denying South Carolina precious second chances. Fudd was awarded the championship game MVP. Bueckers, the presumptive #1 selection in the upcoming WNBA draft would finish with 17 points and six rebounds in her final collegiate game. She came off the court at the end of the game crying and hugging Auriemma.

Joyce Edwards and Tessa Johnson paced the Gamecocks with 10 points each. Coach Staley and her teams have won three national championships since 2017, including a victory over the Huskies in 2022. South Carolina hoped to go back-to-back for the first time in program history, but the Huskies proved too formidable on this day.

Aftermath

Asked about winning his 12th championship Auriemma said after the game.

“You just never know if you will be back in this situation again. There were so many times when I think we all questioned if we’ve been here too long. And yet we kept hanging in there and hanging in there. It’s because these players. They make me want to hang in there every day. And this team has changed so much from the beginning of the season. If people only knew.

Bueckers in an interview after the game would say this to ESPN’s Holly Rowe regarding her time at Connecticut.

“Unreal. Just so much gratitude for everything this program has meant to me. For how much my teammates mean to me. And this is from the top to the bottom.”‘

And when asked what coach Auriemma said to her as she exited the game, Bueckers said.

“He told me he loved me, and I told him I hated him,” Bueckers said with a laugh. No, I love that man more than words can describe. And he always has our back. Sometimes, it feels he’s on you and he has nothing but bad things to say. But he always has belief. Just the relationship that we have, I can’t even put into words.“