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TAMPA, Fla. — South Carolina is one make a choice up faraway from repeating as NCAA ladies’s basketball nationwide champs, however the one obstacle left in their course is also the final team to make a choice up encourage-to-encourage titles.
Second-seeded Connecticut, which hasn’t obtained a championship since repeating in 2015-16, routed top-seeded UCLA 85-51 on Friday evening. That sets up a showdown Sunday afternoon with the Gamecocks, who developed with a straightforward 74-57 make a choice up Friday over Texas.
“I don’t think we made a mistake the entire evening, especially on the defensive end,” stated UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who will bound for his 12th nationwide title on Sunday. “I am true extremely ok with these guys and what they had been able to enact … it took all the pieces we had, and I am very humbled by their performance tonight.
Every groups had straight forward semifinal wins at Amalie Enviornment despite going thru stable seeds — UConn’s 34-point margin of victory modified into the critical in Girls’s Closing Four history. Auriemma cited the depth of expertise on his team, that on an evening when senior guard Paige Bueckers modified into held to 16 aspects, his team modified into nonetheless lifted by ahead Sarah Stable (22 aspects) and guard Azzi Fudd (19). Bueckers, who came to UConn with dreams of winning a nationwide title, stated she is grateful to now be one make a choice up faraway from that unbiased.
“We prayed, we prepared and we hoped to be playing on the last day of the season, and we get that opportunity,” Bueckers stated. “So we don’t want to take it for granted, and you don’t want to get caught up in the moment of being so anxious and trying to win the national championship in one possession that you’re just psyching yourself out.”
If UConn can make a choice up Sunday, they are going to enact one thing no Huskies champions believe accomplished sooner than, by beating three No. 1 seeds along the vogue, the most any team can beat. It’s protected to reveal that neither team can believe it as straight forward as they did in Friday’s semifinals.
The Gamecocks, playing Texas for a fourth time this season, obtained a double-double off the bench from freshman Joyce Edwards (13 aspects and 11 rebounds) and had a team-most efficient 14 aspects from senior guard Te-Hina Paopao, who came encourage for a fifth year with this in mind.
“This is why I came back,” Paopao stated. “The goal is to go back-to-back. We have one more to go, and we’re just really excited to get going on Sunday. I’m just super-excited. I know we’re going to be really prepared and ready, and that it’s going to be a 40-minute battle, no matter who wins.”
[RELATED: NCAA Women’s Tournament semifinal highlights ]
It wasn’t the final time UConn and South Carolina met, because the Huskies went to Columbia on Feb. 16 and pulled off an 87-58 rout of the Gamecocks to total their 71-sport house winning depart. South Carolina misplaced most efficient three video games all year, and Friday’s make a choice up avenged one more a kind of in opposition to Texas — the 2 groups performed four events, with South Carolina winning three, collectively with the SEC championship sport.
One key to Friday’s make a choice up for South Carolina modified into getting Texas megastar ahead Madison Booker in putrid distress early. She obtained her third putrid with 2:29 left in the first half of and the Longhorns up 33-31, but South Carolina ended the half of on a 7-2 flee, then opened the third quarter with 5 straight aspects. An 11-0 flee later in the third gave them the separation they wanted and Texas beneath no circumstances obtained closer than 10 aspects in the fourth.
UConn had it even more straightforward, leading by 20 at halftime and pulling faraway from there. UCLA has a dominant heart in 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts, but she did now not believe noteworthy encourage Friday on an evening where UConn confirmed how deep their expertise runs. Betts accomplished with 26 aspects, but that modified into bigger than all her teammates mixed — the Bruins had extra turnovers than made field wishes until the closing minutes of the game. The Huskies will like a flash believe a good time advancing to the closing, but additionally will like a flash turn their heart of attention to South Carolina.
“We never get complacent with our performance,” Fudd stated. “We’ll celebrate it the rest of tonight, and we wake up tomorrow, it’s a new day, a new scout, a new opportunity for us to play even better as a team. I think the full season, it’s knowing we’re capable of so much more, making sure we tap into that every single night and never get complacent.”
South Carolina is 3-0 in championship video games beneath Staley, collectively with a 64-49 make a choice up over UConn in the 2022 title sport, but she stated that has no relating Sunday’s sport as she seeks a fourth championship.
“I don’t even bring it up,” Staley stated. “It’s just singularly focused on winning a game. Nothing that happened prior to here is going to help us on Sunday — nothing. If it’s UConn, it’s not going to help us. If it’s UCLA, not going to help us. I think playing in the game and seeing how the game is being played out, it’s the only thing that’s going to help us.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports activities. He previously spent a decade keeping the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Conditions and The Athletic. It’s possible you’ll per chance per chance presumably presumably also follow him on Twitter at @gregauman .
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