Gamecocks Take On Huskies In National Championship Rematch

Later this afternoon, Dawn Staley and South Carolina's women's basketball team will face one of their toughest tests of the season when they take on Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies. It'll be a rematch of last year's national championship bout, one which the Gamecocks won handily and in the eyes of many, symbolized a passing of the torch from UConn to South Carolina as the best program in women's college basketball.

With the Gamecocks have won three of the past four matchups, the general feeling this time around is that South Carolina is the team being chased, not the Huskies, but as Coach Staley made it clear when talking to the media on Friday, she's not biting at this notion.

"I think we're the favorites for you all, some people may think otherwise. I'm not falling for it, the narrative really isn't South Carolina's going to win the game, South Carolina's going to win the game because [UConn] has a depleted roster."

To say UConn has been snake bitten with injuries this season would be putting it kindly. Auriemma has only had two players play in every game to this point in the season and will be without his two best players in Paige Bueckers, who tore her ACL this past August, and Azzi Fudd, who reaggravated a knee injury two weeks ago.

With those two out, South Carolina must work to contain Aaliyah Edwards and Lou Lopez Sénéchal, with Edwards serving as the Huskies' biggest paint presence while Lopez is UConn's volume jump shooter. With the Huskies starting five, all averaging over 31 minutes per game, it'll be interesting to see how Carolina's depth could test UConn's competitive endurance with the continuous waves of players Dawn Staley can put on the floor.

While South Carolina has never won a game in UConn's home arena, which seats 15,600 fans, Gamecock superstar Aliyah Boston seemed to infer on Friday after practice that the team would be prepared for the moment.

"I would expect a whole lot of people at the game, but we're used to road games. We've played a big road game at Stanford earlier in the year and they had a great crowd as well, and so we know that every time we play, especially away, there's gonna be a great crowd."

How To Watch South Carolina at UConn

Gameday: Sunday, February 5th, 2023.
Game time: 12:00 pm ET
TV: FOX
Stadium: XL Center (Storrs, CT)
Live stream on fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!

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