Uconn trainer Geno Auriemma called his huskies and her opponent of the national championship game, South Carolina, “the two best -known programs currently in women -college basketball”.
So it is suitable that the huskies (36-3), when the 2024-25 season in Tampa, Florida, in Tampa, Florida, pursues its 12th title in the women’s NCAA tournament, while the Gamecocks (35-3) have become the first repeat champion of the sport since 2016.
Uconn, the No. 2 seed in Spokane Region 4, was the latest program that won the successive championships in a dominant run when the Huskies from 2013-16 won four directly. The title in 2016 was also the latest program, with the nine-year waiting between the championships that Uconn’s longest has won since the first win of the NCAA tournament of women in 1995-All led by Auriemma.
Sunday is the first national championship game of the Huskies since 2022 when South Carolina claimed the second of his three crowns under coach Dawn Staley. A win on Sunday would give the Gamecocks three titles in four seasons.
“Past appearances what happened last year will not be a factor for what happens on Sunday,” said Auriemma. “Our 11 national championships don’t help us win.”
These past appearances include a matchup of the same team less than two months ago, which Uconn won on February 16 in South Carolina in South Carolina.
This dominant victory resembled the Huskies semi-final victory of the Huskies against the UCLA on Friday.
Against South Carolina, Azzi Fudd went 6 out of 10 from the 3-point range with 28 points, while Sarah Strong recorded a 16-point double double double double in the middle of a quiet offensive performance by Star Guard Paige Bueckers (12 points).
On Friday, after three consecutive games with at least 31 points 7 out of 17 for 16 points after three consecutive games. Fudd scored 19 points in the first half to start the huskies, while Strong added 22 points and eight rebounds. The defense of Huskies forced 19 sales.
Uconn has a profit series of 15 games in the championship game. It arrived there as No. 1 seeds in the Birmingham 2 region.
After his 74-57 semi-final, South Carolina is a winning series of 12 games on Friday.
The 14 points and two steals from Te-Hola Paopao together with the 13 points of Joyce Edwards, 11 rebounds and six assists from the bank that South Carolina drove.
The StaLey teams are unbeaten in NCAA tournament championship games and have been 3-0 since 2017.
“I want us to be undefeated in the national championship games and wish it helped,” said Staue. “… I wish it would see 10 points because we are unbeaten.”
Instead, South Carolina will use a defense that was even more overwhelming in five NCAA tournament games than the season with 57.4 points per game return.
With the victory on Friday, when South Carolina found 9 of 30 (30 percent) in Texas in the second half, the Gamecocks held their tournament opponents on average 55 points per game.
Paopao described South Carolina’s team defense as itself.
“Energy begins with the defense,” she said. “If you (Bree Hall) play such a defense, you want to play defense for you and the team … and get the train going.”
Uconn’s offensive is 87.8 points per game in the tournament, and his defense has kept four of his five opponents to less than 60 points and abandoned an average of 53 points per game.
-Media on the Level field
