TAMPA — Paige Bueckers said it herself: When you sign up to play women’s basketball at Connecticut, anything less than a national championship is a disappointment. Near the end of a remarkable career with the Huskies — 2021 national player of the year, three-time all-American, the No. 3 scorer in program history — there’s only one thing missing on her résumé, and she’ll have the opportunity to get it Sunday afternoon.
U-Conn. never trailed in an 85-51 rout of top overall seed UCLA in a national semifinal at Amalie Arena on Friday night. The Huskies will face defending champion South Carolina for the national championship after the Gamecocks defeated Texas earlier Friday evening. The matchup will be a rematch from a February meeting in Columbia, South Carolina — a 29-point win for Connecticut.
“We prayed, we prepared, and we hoped to be playing on the last day of the season, and we got that opportunity,” Bueckers said. “So we don’t want to take it for granted.
“Just enjoying the last couple of days we have here with each other. It’s pretty crazy that it’s all coming to an end.”
The Huskies haven’t lost since they fell to Tennessee on Feb. 6, and they have won their five NCAA tournament games by an average of 34.8 points. UCLA’s season finished with the deepest tournament run in program history and a 34-3 record, but the Bruins weren’t in the same class as their opponents Friday. They are now 1-8 all-time against the Huskies.
U-Conn. (36-3) will be going for a 12th national championship but its first since 2016, when the Huskies won the last of four in a row. South Carolina (35-3) is looking for its first back-to-back titles after previous championships in 2017, 2022 and 2024.
“I have to say, this was somewhat unexpected,” U-Conn. Coach Geno Auriemma said. “I don’t think we made a mistake the entire evening, especially on the defensive end.
“I’m humbled by their performance tonight.”
The Huskies set the tone quickly, and when Bueckers pulled up on the left wing for a buzzer-beating jumper to end the first quarter, the star point guard casually jogged to the sideline with a 23-13 lead.
Despite that moment, the Huskies didn’t need to lean on Bueckers’s offense Friday even though she had entered the game averaging 29 points in the tournament. She checked out of the game with over five minutes remaining with 16 points, five rebounds and two assists.
While Bueckers calmly did her thing, other Huskies quickly buried the Bruins. Azzi Fudd did anything she wanted to the tune of 19 points, all scored before halftime. Freshman Sarah Strong worked inside and out and finished with 22 points and eight rebounds. Strong became the third freshman in program history to score 20-plus points in a Final Four game, joining Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart.
“My mindset tonight was just to be aggressive, whatever that meant,” Fudd said. “We had a great, great practice yesterday and a great shootaround this morning. I felt like, we’re here in Tampa. We’re going to have a great game tonight. I just felt it. I was just so excited to be out here with this team. Just the energy all day was, it was just something good about it.”
Late in the second quarter, Fudd pushed the ball upcourt in transition to Bueckers. That led to a lightning-quick touch pass from Bueckers to a sprinting Kaitlyn Chen for a layup. UCLA immediately called timeout, trailing 39-22 with 1:32 left before the half. Bueckers said she saw three defenders and the adjustment was “kind of just an instinct.”
First-team all-American Lauren Betts posted 26 points for UCLA, but no other Bruin reached double figures. The Bruins were simply never competitive.
UCLA’s Janiah Barker grabbed a defensive rebound early in the second quarter and kicked it to guard Kiki Rice, who wasn’t quite ready for the pass. The ball bounced away out of bounds as both Rice and Barker immediately looked to the sky with dejection. The moment summed up the night for the Bruins, who saw little go right against the winningest program in NCAA tournament history.
Turnovers like those made any chance of victory significantly more difficult. The Bruins piled up 19, including 14 in the first half. Those were turned into 19 points at the break and 25 for the game. U-Conn. led 42-22 at halftime. The onslaught didn’t stop, and the Huskies are one win away from another championship.
“The turnovers is really what killed us in the first half,” Rice said. “It was difficult for us to get in rhythm both offensively and defensively when you’re continuously turning the ball over. … We had uncharacteristic turnovers.
“A lot of it was self-inflicted because we have played against a ton of different defenses this year. … I feel like there wasn’t always connection between both the passer and the receiver all the time on the court because they were just able to get in front, get hands on the ball.”
As disappointed as the Bruins were, there was still excitement about their future. Only two players on the roster are older than juniors, so Betts, Rice and Barker, the Big Ten sixth player of the year, are all eligible to come back. Coach Cori Close talked about this being a program still on the rise.
“I use this quote I got from Tony Bennett a long time ago,” Close said. “Adversity, if used correctly, can buy you a ticket to a place that maybe you wouldn’t have gone otherwise. I think in other areas we have really done that. This is our next area.
“We got exposed. We got out-toughed. We got our butts beat today. And it stings right now. And may the pain of that regret and this loss buy us a ticket, if handled well, to be better the next time hopefully we get this opportunity.”
