UConn’s women’s basketball team are champions for a 12th time – and the first in nearly a decade – after emphatically defeating South Carolina 82-59 in the national championship on Sunday.
In what was only the storied program’s second title game appearance since 2016, the Huskies prevented Dawn Staley’s group from winning their third title in four years.
Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong both led the way with 24 points, while Paige Bueckers – expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in this month’s WNBADraft – also had 17 points and six rebounds.
The trio checked out of the game with roughly 90 seconds remaining as the crowd in Tampa gave them a massive ovation and Bueckers shared a hug with her coach Geno Auriemma.
‘I love her, that’s all I can say,’ he said on ESPN when asked about the moment.
This championship drought – nine years – was the longest for Auriemma and his Huskies since the team won its first championship in 1995 led by Rebecca Lobo.
Geno Auriemma lifts the March Madness trophy after his team beat South Carolina on Sunday
Paige Bueckers and Auriemma shared an emotional hug after she subbed out of the game
Dawn Staley’s South Carolina were seeking a third title in four years on Sunday
Since then, the Huskies have had several dominant championship runs, including in the early 2000s led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, 2009-10 with Maya Moore and finally the four straight from 2013-16 with Breanna Stewart. All were in attendance in Florida on Sunday to see the Huskies’ latest title.
‘You just never know if you´ll ever be back in this situation again,’ Auriemma said. ‘And there were so many times when I think we all questioned, `Have we been here too long? Has it been time?´ And we kept hanging in there and hanging in there and that´s because these players make me want to hang in there every day.’
Fudd, who added five rebounds and three steals in the game, was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four after the win.
Despite the long wait for a 12th women’s title by UConn’s lofty standards, Sunday’s win further entrenched Auriemma as the best coach in the history of women’s college basketball.
His 12 titles are now four more than the next-closest competitor, the late, great Tennessee coach PatSummitt, who won eight titles.
Staley, who has won three total titles with South Carolina, would have jumped to third on the all-time list with a win over the Huskies.
Bueckers ended her college career on a high as she won a title in her final game for UConn
Fudd, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, will return next season
UConn coach Auriemma won his 12th women’s national championship on Sunday
The Gamecocks were competitive in the first half, as they went into the break down 10, but the Huskies pulled away in the second half.
Fudd, Strong and Bueckers combined for 23 of the team´s 26 points in the third quarter. UConn was up 50-39 with 3:21 left in the period before closing with a 12-3 run to put the game away.
Ultimately, only one South Carolina player, Tessa Johnson, scored in double figures as the Gamecocks offense struggled badly in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The Huskies´ last title game appearance before this year came in 2022, when Staley´s team beat UConn to start the Gamecocks´ current run of success, a game that ended Auriemma´s perfect record in title games.
The only UConn player who saw significant time in the title game three years ago against South Carolina was Bueckers, who played in her last college game on Sunday.
Auriemma said after the game that his team ‘fell in love with each other’ the last two months
It was the 12th championship in UConn’s women’s history, and the first since 2016
The guard, who struggled with injuries earlier in her college career, returned to form over the last two seasons before ultimately finishing her college career with a title.
She was the first freshman to win AP Player of the Year before missing most of her sophomore season with a tibial plateau fracture and meniscus tear.
She then tore her ACL in 2022 before the next season.
Earlier this week, she was named an All-American for the third time, and looks set to join the Dallas Wings, who own the WNBA’s first overall pick.