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.
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.
The Huskies set the tone quickly against the Bruins on Friday, 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.
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.
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 they are one win away from another championship.
