Uconn dominates South Carolina, wins 12. National title

Tampa, FLA.- it was a nine-year waiting Uconne Get the 12th National Championship. But in many ways it came exactly at the right time.

Seed No. 2 Huskies completed three seeds No. 1 – USC, UCLA and 82-59 vs. South Carolina In the last Sunday NCAA – with a title that may mean a little more because of the way of the program and its older star Paige Bueckers He was on to get it.

After winning four championships from 2013 to 2016, Huskies hit a number of roadblocks with severe losses and injuries.

But on Sunday, Huskies moved to the top of the women’s basketball world and sent Bueckers – which is expected to be a selection of 1 WNBA 14 April – with the first national championship.

The tear Bueckers buried her face in the shoulder of coach Gen Auriemma, when they hugged on the side line as she stepped out of the game with just over a minute left, the mission finally finished.

With the guards Bueckers and Azzi advantagewho missed most of the last season with knee injuries, healthy at the same time and the best newcomer in the nation forward Sarah StrongUconn looked like many of his championship teams. Not only the best team, but a team that also played the best.

Fudd and Strong both ended with 24 points and Bueckers had 17. Freshman Joyce Edwards and sophomore Tessa Johnson He led South Carolina with 10 points when Gamecocks did not reach repetition as a national champagne and finished 35-4.

Uconn now has 12 wins in the finals four to 20 or more points. All other teams in women’s di history have 11 such victories.

Beeckers was asked before Sunday how she would like to remember Uconn.

“As a great teammate, a great leader. I think these are the two most important things for me only when people you like to play with, improving their teammates, wearing the Uconn jersey,” she said.

Now he will also remember as a national champion. It is true that there were points in her career where it did not seem to happen. In fact, the disappointment of UConn returns to the end of the winning lane 111 games on the final Four in Dallas in 2017.

Then in 2018, ’19, ’21 and ’24, Huskies also lost in the national semifinals. In South Carolina, they fell into the National Championship 2022 and missed the final of 2023 – the only time since the loss of elite eight in 2007, when Huskies did not make the last weekend of the season. Bueckers missed the season 2022-2023 by knee injuries.

With Fudd last season, Huskies in the national semifinals went down to the Iowa wire, but lost 71-69. This put a lot of pressure on Bueckers and Huskies to make their dreams come true this year.

Uconn was not perfect this season, as was the case with six former UConn Championship teams. But after the loss of 80-76 in Tennessee 6th February, Huskies did not lose another game. They won the titles of the regular season and Big East tournaments and then dominated the NCAA tournament and finished 37-3.

On Sunday, after the first quarter, which had a very fast pace and some intense defense from Uconn, he took the lead 19-14. Huskies set the tone by shooting 52.9% of the field in the opening period while Gamecocks held 40%. Unlike UCLA in her semi -final loss of Uconn, South Carolina worked on the ball at the places she wanted, but did not finish well.

Strong’s strong block and Raven Johnson The attempt to lay down at 9:04 The brand of the second quarter sent a message, just like its game during the first postseason.

Strong set the NCAA tournament for a newcomer in a single tournament with 114. Feaster continued to 10 seasonal career in WNBA, where her daughter will be aiming in several years.

Strong is also the first player regardless of the class, which has at least 100 points, 25 assists and 10 blocks in a single NCAA tournament, as the blocks in 1988 became an official status.

Coach South Carolina Dawn Staley predicted on Saturday that in the next few years, strong could end up as the best player of Huskies of all. This says a ton of considering former UConn players such as Stewart, Diana Tauras, Swin Cash and two of the latest Inductors of the Naismith Hall of Fame, Maya Moore and Sue Bird, who were honored in Sunday’s game.

Uconn, who entered an average of 8.7 3-reporters on Sunday, had only one in the first half, but helped Huskies increase their dynamics to the half-life. Ashlynn Shade Hit from the left corner with 9 seconds remaining in the second quarter and mission Huskies to the dressing room for 36-26.

Huskies continued to control the game during the second half. Uconn is now 91-2 when it leads double numbers at half-time at the NCAA tournament all the time. Both losses were in 2001 of the National Semi -final (up to 12 in half), when he lost with a possible Notre Dame champion and in the first round of 1989 (10 in half) against La Salle.

Auriemma trained at her first NCAA tournament in 1989 in her fourth season in Uconn. Huskies have now appeared at 36 NCAA tournaments and 24 finals. Auriemma, who reached 71 years in March, is the first coach to win the 70 -year -old championship and older in the women’s basketball division I or men.

Before the match, he joked that he had been thinking about leaving several times over the last few years, but then he would go into the training and always drawn back.

“I think there are a lot of people counting on me to do what I do in Uconn – all my team, all my employees,” Auriemma said. “I think they count on me to continue and constantly influence and constantly do what we do.”