UConn Huskies Win NCAA Women's Basketball Championship
The University of Connecticut Huskies' women's basketball team finally has its dominant dozen after nearly a decade of waiting.
UConn returned to its perch atop the women's game as it silenced South Carolina to the tune of an 82-59 final in Sunday afternoon's NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament finale at Amalie Arena. The Huskies (37-3) extend their record with their 12th consecutive national championship and their first since 2016.
A preview of a repeat could've well been on display on Sunday afternoon in Tampa: Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong, each set to return to the floor next year, took over the show with dominant efforts.
The freshman Strong once again proved to be no match for pressures of March Madness with a 24-point, 15-rebound double-double, adding three blocks and two steals in the process. Fudd matched her tally in scoring and was nearly perfect with an 8-of-9 tally from two-point range. For that and her 19-point showing against UCLA in the national semifinal, Fudd was named the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
South Carolina had the early lead within the first four minutes but momentum began to shift on a Fudd and-one, which sandwiched Kaitlyn Chen feeds to Strong and Jana El-Alfy. The Huskies built the lead up to five before the opening period let out and back-to-back tallies from Strong and Paige Bueckers—each of whom assisted on the other's shots—perhaps signaled a permanent momentum switch, one apparent from the get-go after Strong followed up her offensive outburst with an furious rejection of Raven Johnson before the opening minute let out.
One last 12-2 run over the final 3:21 of the third quarter ensured that the only drama left would be how much UConn could build its lead by. That answer proved to be 32 before head coach Geno Auriemma pulled his top women, affording each them a raucous round of applause as the countdown to UConn's trophy hoist officially began.
With the win, UConn avenged its only national championship game loss to date, the 2022 edition against Aliyah Boston's Gamecocks group. Bueckers and Fudd were a part of that team and the game's one-sided nature allowed the other leftover, Caroline Ducharme, to get into the game late.
Connecticut concludes its season on the highest of notes: it went the last two months of the trek without losing a game. Only one game in that span, the Sweet 16 triumph over Southern California, featured a margin of victory of less than 15 points. The average margin of victory in their six NCAA Tournament games was just under 33 points.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
