UConn dominates South Carolina to win NCAA-best 12th National Championship

The GIST: And with that, the 2024–25 women’s college basketball season has come to an end. Hopefully, you had your notepad handy for yesterday’s sold-out national championship game because No. 2 seed UConn put on an absolute hoops clinic.

• The Huskies dismantled the defending champ No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks 82–59 to win their NCAA-best 12th program title. Turns out there is crying in basketball.

UConn’s best-in-the-country defense shines bright: The “defense wins championships” adage rang true for the Huskies, who held South Carolina to under 60 points for the second time this season. In fact, UConn dominated all tournament long, crushing opponents by a stunning 32.8 points per game.

• Their offense was just as mind-bogglingly good: The talented trifecta of superstar senior Bueckers, graduate student Azzi “Final Four Most Outstanding Player” Fudd, and freshman Sarah Strong combined for 65 of UConn’s 82 points.

• And these dogs did it in record-breaking fashion: Bueckers’ 477 career tournament points is the most in Huskies history (and third-best all-time) while Strong posted the most D1 tourney points ever by a freshman with 114. Shooters shoot.

Looking ahead: It’s the end of an era for Bueckers and a quartet of South Carolina stars — Te-Hina Paopa, Bree Hall, Sania Feagin, and (possibly) Raven Johnson — all five of whom could hear their names called in next week’s WNBA draft.

• The Gamecocks’ mass exodus is giving shades of the team from two seasons ago that lost all five starters and then went undefeated the following campaign.

• And with two members of UConn’s dominant three-pronged attack back in Storrs next season, not to mention legendary HCs in Auriemma and SC’s Dawn Staley sticking around, this growing rivalry between the Huskies and Gamecocks is one to keep an eye on.