Huskies Rout Gamecocks, Win 12th Championship

UConn rookie forward Sarah Strong used a 24 point, 15 rebound, 5 assist performance to lift the Huskies over the South Carolina Gamecocks 82-59 and win the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Sunday in front of an announced crowd of 19,777 at Tampa’s Amalie Arena. It is the 12th time that the Huskies, led by head coach Geno Auriemma, have won the national championship.

It was a rematch of the 2022 Championship game between these two teams, which South Carolina won 64-49 for their second championship. Entering this game, the Gamecocks were the defending champions by virtue of their 87-75 defeat of Caitlin Clark-led Iowa Hawkeyes in last year’s championship game.

South Carolina opened the game looking like defending champions. Gamecocks guard Te-Hina Paopao hit a three-pointer for the game’s first score and giving South Carolina confidence from the tipoff. Strong answered with a jump shot to put the Huskies on the board, but forward Chloe Kitts hit a jump shot on the other end to put the Gamecocks up 5-2 just 84 seconds into the game.

The Huskies took their first lead of the game after guard Paige Bueckers made a basket, which was followed by guard Azzi Fudd’s midrange jump shot. Though the lead was short lived as guard Raven Johnson gave South Carolina the lead again just 24 seconds later. Three minutes had elapsed on the game clock and there were already two lead changes with the score 7-6.

After UConn guard Kaitlyn Chen made a shot to give the Huskies another lead, Kitts and guard Bree Hall made shots to extend the South Carolina lead to three points.

The Huskies made the first substantial run of the game with layups from Strong and center Jana El Alfy, and a jump shot and free throw from Fudd, who was fouled by forward Sania Feagin on the play. The 7-0 run put UConn out in front 15-11 with 4:37 remaining in the opening quarter. They never trailed again.

Forward Joyce Edwards took charge for the Gamecocks by scoring on a tip in after a missed shot by Kitts. She also made one of two free throws after getting fouled by El Alfy, which cut the South Carolina deficit to a single point. Fudd stole the ball from guard MiLaysia Fulwiley at midcourt and converted a fast break layup to put UConn back up by three points.

Then, for the next three minutes and 21 seconds, nothing. Neither team could make a shot. South Carolina turned the ball over twice and missed five shots. UConn committed one turnover, missed three shots, but had an offensive foul called against guard KK Arnold. It looked as if the scoring drought would carry to the quarter break until Bueckers hit a shot with five seconds left. The Huskies led 19-14 after one quarter.

The second quarter opened with another jump shot from Bueckers and a layup from Strong to make it an 8-0 run between the break.

The scoring drought for South Carolina continued. Finally, after five minutes without an additional point, Edwards was able to make a basket to end the drought. It started a Gamecocks 8-2 run that featured two baskets by Feagin and two free throws from Tessa Johnson. Bueckers made two free throws after Edwards picked up her second foul of the game. The Huskies led 25-22 with 5:59 left until halftime.

However, South Carolina found itself facing another scoring drought over the next four minutes as they missed seven consecutive shots, turned the ball over once and committed one foul, while UConn went on an 8-0 run fueled by Fudd. Strong scored a layup, but Fudd made two free throws, a jump shot, and picked off Fulwiley again for a fast break layup. The Huskies were now up 33-22 with 3:23 left until halftime.

Tessa Johnson ended the Gamecocks scoring drought with a three-pointer, and forward Maryam Dauda made one of two free throws after getting fouled by guard Ashlynn Shade. Even though South Carolina was chipping away at the deficit, Shade made the Huskies first three pointer of the day with nine seconds left until the break. UConn led 36-26 at halftime.

There were five lead changes in the first quarter, compared to zero lead changes during the entire 2022 championship game. Of the 36 first half points scored by UConn, 29 of them were from Bueckers, Strong and Fudd combined.

As the third quarter got underway, Fudd and Kitts exchanged baskets. Fudd made two free throws after getting fouled by Hall, and then Kitts made a layup. Fudd scored on a jump shot. Kitts sank one of two free shots after El Alfy committed her fourth foul of the game and went back to the bench. Fudd made a layup after Strong hit a shot. Kitts made two free throws after forward Ice Brady fouled her. Despite the performance from Kitts, UConn still led 44-31 with 5:34 left in the third quarter.

The Gamecocks built a little bit of momentum when Fulwiley made a jump shot, stole the ball from Brady near midcourt, made the outlet pass to Feagin, who scored on a fast break layup. Sensing a momentum switch, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma called a timeout to refocus his team with 3:12 left in the third and leading 50-39.

UConn’s perimeter shooting improved when Fudd hit a corner three-pointer coming out of the timeout. Strong fouled Edwards, who made one of two free throws, and then redeemed herself by hitting the third three-pointer of the game for the Huskies. However, the game stalled again as the final eight points of the quarter were scored on five separate trips to the free throw line. Bueckers and Strong made both of their shots for the Huskies, while Shade and Arnold each made one of two. Tessa Johnson made both of hers for the Gamecocks. UConn finished the quarter on a 9-2 run and took a 62-42 lead at the end of the third quarter.

A 20-point deficit with ten minutes remaining meant that the Gamecocks would need to make up one basket on the differential in each minute of play. Considering the ferocity at which the Huskies played defense, the odds of success were rapidly diminishing with each passing moment, and South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley was running out of options.

Enter Maddy McDaniel, the 5-9 freshman from Upper Marlboro, Md. She had played only 23 minutes and scored four points during her first ever NCAA tournament and now entered the game with 10 minutes left on the clock for her first ever NCAA championship game. (She played one minute in the semifinal game against Texas.)

In her first minute of play, McDaniel fouled Arnold twice, leading to two of four UConn free shots, and made two free throws of her own after getting fouled by Bueckers.

The Huskies went on another run starting with Arnold’s second free throw. Bueckers made two baskets and was fouled once, leading to a free throw, and Strong added a layup to make an 8-0 run. UConn now led 73-44 with 7:45 remaining in the game.

Fulwiley was the next person up for the Gamecocks who tried to rally the team. She scored two layups, both sandwiched between one from Arnold. Then Strong nailed another three-pointer which was followed by another Arnold layup to make the score 80-48. South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley called a timeout with 4:01 to make her last substitution of the game.

The Gamecocks made one final run. Tessa Johnson hit a three-pointer which was answered by a layup by Strong. Auriemma pulled Bueckers, Fudd and Strong out of the game during a stoppage in play when Azzi fouled McDaniel. Like Staley, gave the bench players a chance to relish the moment of playing in the championship game.

McDaniel made one of two free throws, and then made a layup on the next possession. Fulwiley ended the scoring with a three-pointer with 31 seconds left on the clock. When the final buzzer sounded, the Huskies defeated the Gamecocks 82-59 to become the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball champions.

UConn went 30-for-62 (48.4 percent) from the field; 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) from three-point range, and 18-for-21 (85.7 percent) from the free throw line. They committed nine turnovers and gave up 10 points to the Gamecocks.

“You don’t prepare speeches for something like this. Although, today I was thinking, man, what am I going to say if things don’t go our way? How can you describe the emotions that you would feel if it went the wrong way for us when there’s so much riding on this game for a lot of people, a lot of people at UConn and mostly for Paige being her last opportunity to do this?,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma asked.

“So I just kept thinking something good has to happen because if we were going to lose it would have been before now. I don’t think the basketball gods would take us all the way to the end – they’ve been really cruel with some of the kids on this team. They’ve suffered a lot of the things that could go wrong in their college careers as an athlete. So they don’t need any more heartbreak. So they weren’t going to take us here and give us more heartbreak. I kept holding on to that,” he added.

“I’m glad they were rewarded. This is one of the most emotional Final Fours and emotional national championships I’ve been a part of since that very first one,” Auriemma concluded.

South Carolina went 21-for-61 (34.4 percent) from the field; went 4-16 (25.0 percent) from three-point range; and 13-for-18 (72.2 percent), from the free throw line. They turned the ball over 11 times leading to 14 UConn points.

“Here’s where I must say that much respect to UConn. They did a masterful job in executing on both sides of the basketball,” said Staley, the Gamecocks head coach. “And at the same time, I have to say goodbye to a senior class that had a historical impact on our game and our program and our conference and our city and our state.”

“I thought their rebounding was good up until that point. I mean, the game plan was being executed in the first half. We just couldn’t get the looks that we normally make. If we just made layups you might be able to make it a little bit more interesting. But at the end of the day we didn’t take care of the basketball. We took a couple of bad shots. We didn’t make layups, and they make you pay. Although the score may be very similar in the results, I thought we had better execution on what we wanted to do coming into this one,” she added.

UConn was led by 24 points each from Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong. Paige Bueckers contributed 17 points in the effort. Strong led all rebounders with 15 and everybody in assists with five.

“I think going into the third quarter, we knew we had a good lead. We played a great first half. We wanted to continue that. We didn’t want to let them back in the game,” said Fudd, who was named Outstanding Player of the Final Four. “I think all of our mindset was just to be aggressive, stay locked in, stay disciplined, stay together. And that’s exactly what we did. I happened to score 11 points, but I was doing what my teammates, what the game was giving and how my teammates got me the ball.”

“Then being able to do it with this group is so incredible. I mean, there’s a lot that – just this season, the ups and downs of the season, but the past four years, this group has been through so much adversity together. To be able to do this for our seniors, I really don’t have words to describe what this feels like, what it means to me, but I’m super grateful and I’m super proud of this entire team,” she added.

Tessa Johnson and Joyce Edwards each had 10 points to pace the Gamecocks. Raven Johnson pulled down seven rebounds, while MiLaysia Fulwiley dished four assists to lead South Carolina.

“They did their thing. I mean, I gotta give them their credit. Talking about UConn, of course,” said Bree Hall. “But this is just – to sit here and be so upset about something like this when I’ve had such an incredible four years, made history at the program, it’s just no reason to be super, super duper upset. Of course it hurts. Of course I’m competitive. Of course I want to win. That’s a no brainer. But I can’t express how appreciative I am of this program. This is something that people dream of having, of experiencing. So I just gotta keep moving on. It is what it is. Like I said, a lot of people dream of being in a position like this.”

UConn players also put their mark on NCAA tournament history with this game. Sarah Strong’s 114 points in the 2025 tournament set a freshman record. UConn became the fourth team in Women’s NCAA tournament history to beat three No. 1 seeds in a tournament, the others being Pat Summitt’s 1987 Tennessee Volunteers; Leon Barmore’s 1988 Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters; and Kim Mulkey’s 2005 Baylor Bears.

Paige Bueckers, who is slated to be selected No. 1 overall in next week’s WNBA Draft, finish her collegiate career with 477 points in NCAA tournaments. This ranks third behind Chamique Holdsclaw’s 479 and Caitlin Clark’s 492 points.

“So many emotions. Gratitude was the main one – of the journey, of the ups and downs, everything that it took to get to that point,” said Bueckers. “And just overwhelming joy and just so happy for every single person who was a part of this journey. Just to be able to sum it up in a few words, joy and gratitude would be the forefront.”

The UConn Huskies are the NCAA Women’s Basketball champions for the 12th time in school history. For Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley, the 2026 season preparations start tomorrow to see if another rematch will happen a year from now at PHX Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.