Ta’Niya Latson scored 16 and Agot Makeer added 14 factors and South Carolina performed stifling protection to beat UConn 62-48 on Friday night time, ending the Huskies’ 54-game profitable streak and advancing to the girls’s NCAA Match championship sport.
The Gamecocks will face the winner of Texas and UCLA semifinal on Sunday for the title, capping off one other March Insanity. South Carolina (36-3) will probably be trying to win its fourth nationwide championship. Their different three have come within the final decade.
UConn (38-1) entered the Closing 4 undefeated for the ninth time at school historical past and for the third straight time left with out a title. The Huskies additionally misplaced within the 2017 and 2018 nationwide semifinals. This was the fewest factors UConn had scored since placing up 49 factors in a nationwide championship sport loss to the Gamecocks in 2022.
Ross D. Franklin / AP
The Huskies and Gamecocks performed final season for the title and UConn got here away with an 82-59 rout for the varsity’s twelfth nationwide championship. UConn additionally beat South Carolina handily through the 2024-25 common season.
With lower than a second remaining within the sport, UConn coach Geno Auriemma walked throughout the courtroom to shake palms with Daybreak Staley and had an animated dialog with the South Carolina coach whereas pointing to the ground. Staley yelled again at him as assistants from each groups separated the 2.
When the clock ran out lastly, Auriemma walked straight to the tunnel and did not shake palms. The 2 groups did shake palms.
The groups got here into the sport because the second- and third-leading scoring groups within the nation, each averaging over 87 factors per sport. This was a defensive battle.
Main 46-44 a couple of minutes into the third quarter, South Carolina scored 5 straight factors, capped by Agot Makeer’s 3-pointer to increase the benefit to seven.
Rick Scuteri / AP
Sarah Sturdy hit a 3-pointer to get the Huskies again inside 51-47 with 4:39 left. The Huskies did not rating once more till Sturdy hit a free throw with 30.8 seconds left, after South Carolina had scored 11 straight factors.
South Carolina clamped down on UConn’s two stars. Sturdy, who was honored because the AP Participant of the 12 months on Thursday, had 12 factors and 12 rebounds, however went 4 for 16 from the sphere. Azzi Fudd had simply eight factors for the Huskies, making solely 3 of 15 photographs.
UConn had its worst capturing night time of the season, ending 19 for 61 (31.1%) from the sphere.
Trailing 26-24 on the half, South Carolina opened the third quarter with a 12-2 run to take the lead. The Gamecocks prolonged the benefit to 40-30 — the most important deficit the Huskies’ had confronted this season.
UConn, which missed 10 of its first 11 3-point makes an attempt, then began to get scorching from the sphere, hitting three consecutive 3-pointers, the final by Fudd to get inside 40-39. The All-America guard had missed seven of her first eight photographs as she was blanketed by South Carolina’s protection.
South Carolina’s Tessa Johnson scored the ultimate 4 factors of the quarter to make it 44-39.
Each groups had cruised to the Closing 4, every profitable within the first 4 rounds of the event simply. The Huskies had been not often challenged all season lengthy, routing their Massive East opponents by document margins.
Going through their first actual take a look at in a very long time, they’d no reply.
The opening 20 minutes was filled with missed photographs and turnovers. The 2 groups mixed to shoot 22 for 62 from the sphere (35.4%) and had 14 turnovers. UConn led 26-24 on the half.
There have been dozens of former Huskies and Gamecocks gamers within the crowd together with Diana Taurasi, Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston. Boston was sitting subsequent to Taste Flav, who is a big supporter of ladies’s sports activities.
