Revenge or repeat? UConn, South Carolina meet at the summit

Two decisive semifinal victories at the women's Final Four set up a compelling final.

Azzi Fudd, UConn

On Feb. 16, fans of South Carolina women’s basketball were driven into numbness by something they hadn’t seen in 71 home games. The Gamecocks’ winning streak in Colonial Life Center was not only snapped, but crackled and popped. Connecticut spent that Sunday afternoon storming the beachhead, beating South Carolina by 30 points from the 3-point line, streaking for 31 fast-break points, grabbing 19 more rebounds. “We got punked,” said Te-Hina Paopao, the Gamecocks’ shooting guard, and coach Dawn Staley pointedly said there had to be something going on “other than the basketball.” The final was 87-58, an unnatural outcome that would have lacked credibility if not for video evidence.

The Huskies were grimly ecstatic because they had played Notre Dame, USC and Tennessee and come up short each time. “We played to win today instead of hoping we didn’t lose,” Geno Auriemma, the UConn coach, said later. The Big East is a collection of bonbons for the Huskies, so they really didn’t know much about themselves until they did what they did to South Carolina. They are undefeated since, with no game closer than 14 points, and on Monday night in Tampa they ridiculed UCLA’s No. 1 seeding, running the Bruins into the Gulf of Mexico with an 85-51 win that was the most decisive in women’s Final Four annals.

But if Feb. 16 was UConn’s fork in the road, South Carolina woke up, tended to its wounds, and followed the same path. After Staley supervised a “come to Jesus” meeting on Feb. 17, South Carolina blew out Arkansas, 95-55. “This is a team everyone better look out for, come tournament time,” said Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors. South Carolina hasn’t lost since, with a 19-point win over Texas in the SEC tournament that was reinforced by a 17-point win over Texas in the semifinals Friday night.

And so there’s a rematch on Sunday, a followup to a game that any rational boxing commission would have stopped in the second quarter.

A win would bring Auriemma his 12th national championship. A win would bring Staley her fourth. Only Auriemma and Tennessee’s Pat Summitt (eight) have won more. But the Gamecocks have won their three titles in 2017, 2022 and 2024. UConn’s last net-cutting was in 2016, and it was South Carolina’s 64-49 victim in the ‘22 title game. Bree Hall of South Carolina played in that game, as did Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd for Connecticut, both of whom have trudged the long way back from ACL tears, both sustained in practice. So there’s no shortage of themes on Sunday, a lot of talk about an empire striking back. We just don’t know which one.

Fudd scored all of her 19 points in the first half Friday night. (UCLA scored 22). She dropped 28 on South Carolina in the streak-buster game. She was fated to do things like this, since her mother Katie named her after Jennifer Azzi, the Stanford All-American, and since Fudd was named the National Player of the Year in high school after she was a sophomore. She had an ACL tear in high school, too, before she signed with UConn. Bueckers and Sarah Strong were also the top players in their recruiting classes.

Auriemma has wound up with a nice division of labor. When things are right, Bueckers, Azzi and Strong are making the scoreboard move, and the other Huskies can concentrate on defense and ball-retrieval. The mission on Friday was to limit the Bruins’ 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts. She wound up going 11-for-18, so you might have worried for the Huskies, but most of that came in minutes UCLA was contractually bound to play, not ones that made the difference. Betts was swarmed by Jana El Alfy and the two closest Huskies to her, and even though she had 26 points she had only one assist. The other Bruins were 4 for 16 from deep, and Betts outscored them 26-25.

South Carolina was more methodical, maybe because Texas was more purposeful than UCLA. They had played three times before. The Longhorns had Madison Booker, who averages 16.5 points, but she ran into early foul trouble and the Gamecocks held her to five field goals. Trailing 12-5, South Carolina slowly turned up the defensive volume and kept pulling away, very much circa 2024.

Staley rarely has to substitute out of desperation. This time, her bench consisted of sophomore blur MiLaysia Fulwiley, veteran Tessa Johnson, and turnkey freshman Joyce Edwards. The three combined for 29 points, and Edwards had 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Last year Edwards rivaled Strong as the nation’s best prep player, and when you’re Staley and you do the right things in life, the Lord allows someone like Edwards to grow up 30 minutes from your campus, in Camden. Gamecocks fans were stressing over the close wins against Maryland and Duke in the regional, and how Edwards seemed to mishandle the moment at times. That was not a problem against Texas, which couldn’t find shots against the “Seatbelt Gang,” which consists of Tessa Johnson, Raven Johnson and whichever South Carolina player rushes into the defensive breach.

In the second quarter, Hall made a 3-pointer and then pivoted to defense so quickly that she fell, right in front of the Gamecocks bench. She smiled as she got up, and Staley laughed heartily.

Throughout this run, the Gamecocks have united their fractious state, selling out their arena on occasion, fetching $200 price tags for lower-bowl seating against the Connecticuts and LSUs. They lose so infrequently that they seem to relish opportunities to rise from the dirt.

Maybe Connecticut is riding too much of a heater for the Gamecocks to compete. More likely, there will be plenty of reasons to fasten one’s seatbelt. As another habitual winner said while the Yankees were conquering the 50s, if you come to a fork in the road, take it.