Uconn dominates the South Carolina, wins the 12th national title

Tampa, Florida – It was a nine -year expectation for Uconn to get his 12th national championship. But in many ways, it came exactly at the right time.

The Huskies No. 2 finished their race through three heads of series n ° 1 – USC, UCLA and 82-59 against South Carolina in the NCAA final on Sunday – with a title which perhaps means a little more because of the trip than the program and its Senior Star Paige Bueckers were on to obtain it.

After winning four consecutive championships from 2013 to 2016 behind the Superstar Breanna Stewart, the Huskies struck a series of dams with difficult losses and injury sorrows.

But on Sunday, the Huskies again moved to the top of the female world of basketball, sending Bueckers – which should be the choice of WNBA recovery n ° 1 on April 14 – with its first national championship.

A bueckers in tears buried his face in the shoulder of coach Geno Auriemma as they hugged when she left the match with just over a minute, Mission finally accomplished.

With Guards Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, who missed most of last season with a knee injury, in good health at the same time, and the first recruit of the nation in striker Sarah Strong, Uconn looked like so many of his championship teams in the past. Not just the best team, but the team that also played the best.

Fudd and Strong both finished with 24 points, and Bueckers had 17. The recruit Joyce Edwards and the second year Tessa Johnson led South Carolina with 10 points each while the Gamecocks are not able to repeat as national champions and finished 35-4.

Uconn now has 12 wins in the Final Four by 20 points or more. All the other teams in female history have 11 victories of this type.

Bueckers was invited before Sunday’s match how she would like us to remember him in Uconn.

“As a big teammate, a big leader. I think these are the two most important things for me, being someone with whom people like to play, improving their teammates, wears a Uconn jersey with pride,” she said.

Now she will remain memories as a national champion. Admittedly, there were points in his career where it did not seem that it would happen. Uconn’s disappointments go back, in fact, at the end of their 111-game victories sequence in the Final Four in Dallas in 2017. The Huskies were defeated on a buzzer drummer in extension in the national semi-finals by the state of Mississippi.

Then in 2018, ’19, ’21 and ’24, the Huskies also lost in the national semi-finals. They fell into the 2022 national championship match in South Carolina and missed the Final Four 2023 – the only time since an Elite Eight defeat in 2007 that the Huskies did not do the last weekend of the season. Bueckers missed the 2022-2023 season with a knee injury.

With Fudd Out last season, the Huskies went down with Iowa in the national semi-finals, but lost 71-69. This has exerted a lot of pressure on Bueckers and Huskies to realize their dreams this year.

Uconn was not perfect this season, as was the case with six former UCONN championship teams. But after a defeat of 80-76 in Tennessee on February 6, the Huskies did not lose another match. They won the titles of the regular season of Big East and the tournament, then dominated their way through the NCAA tournament, finishing 37-3.

On Sunday, the Huskies took an advance of 19-14 after a first quarter which had a very fast pace and an intense defense inside Uconn. The Huskies set the tone by pulling 52.9% of the field in the opening period, while maintaining the Gamecocks at 40%. Unlike the UCLA in its defeat in the semi-finals against Uconn, the South Carolina worked the ball in the places it wanted, but has not finished well.

Strong’s emphatic block of a Layup Raven Johnson attempt at 9:04 a.m. of the second quarter sent a message, just as she played throughout her first qualifying series.

Strong has set a NCAA tournament record for the points of a first year student in a single tournament with 114. She exceeded Tamika Catchings of Tennessee, who had 111 in 1998. That year, moreover, Strong’s mother, Allison Feaster, led Harvard as head of series n ° 16 after Stanford. Feaster continued a career of 10 seasons in the WNBA, where his daughter will head in a few years.

Strong is also the first player, whatever the class, to have at least 100 points, 25 assists and 10 blocks in a single NCAA tournament since the blocks became official statistics in 1988.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley predicted on Saturday that over the next few years, Strong could end up as the best Huskies player of all. This says a ton consutting the former UCONS players like Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash and two of the most recent Naismith Hall of Fame, Maya Moore and Sue Bird, who were honored during the match on Sunday.

Uconn, who entered Sunday with an average of 8.7 3 points per game, had only one in the first half, but helped the Huskies increase their momentum at halftime. Ashlynn Shade struck the left corner with 9 seconds playing in the second quarter, sending the Huskies in the locker room at the top of 36-26.

The Huskies continued to control the game throughout the second half. Uconn is now 91-2 when he is in the lead two-digit at half-time in the NCAA tournament of all time. The two defeats were the national semi-final of 2001 (up 12 by half) when it lost against the possible champion Notre Dame and in the first round in 1989 (up 10 by half) against the room.

Auriemma led her first NCAA tournament in 1989, during her fourth season in Uconn. The Huskies have now appeared in 36 NCAA tournaments and 24 Final Fours. Auriemma, who was 71 years old in March, is the first coach to win a championship at the age of 70 or more in women’s or male basketball in division I.

He joked before the match he has thought of arresting several times during the season in recent years, but then went to train and always be withdrawn.

“I think there are a lot of people who count on me to continue doing what I do in Uconn – my whole team, all my staff,” said Auriemma. “I think they are counting on me to continue and continue to have an impact and continue to do what we do.”