UConn’s perfect season is over. On Friday, the Huskies fell to the 1-seed South Carolina Gamecocks 62-48 at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix.
South Carolina shut down UConn’s two stars. Sarah Strong finished with 12 points on 4-16 shooting to go with 12 rebounds while Azzi Fudd only had eight points on 3-15 shooting in her final collegiate game. Ashlynn Shade stepped up with 10 points, but it wasn’t enough.
The Huskies were dominated down low. South Carolina had a 47-32 rebounding edge — 14-9
on the offensive glass — and outscored UConn 34-20 on points in the paint. The Gamecocks also went 18-22 at the line while the Huskies went just 4-6.
In the handshake line, Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley got into an altercation and needed to be separated by their respective coaching staffs. Since the final buzzer hadn’t yet sounded, the two sides returned to the bench and let the remaining time run off. Auriemma did not go through the second handshake line, though the rest of the team and staff did.
UConn got off to a quick start, opening up an 11-4 lead midway through the first quarter. Williams started the Huskies off with four straight point before Strong followed up with back-to-back baskets soon after. Then the momentum flipped. Over the final 4:50 of the opening frame, South Carolina outscored UConn 11-4 to pull even at 15 all.
In the second quarter, the Huskies hit a cold snap. They failed to record a bucket through the first four minutes, allowing the Gamecocks to go ahead by five — their largest lead of the day to that point. UConn settled in with 10 of the next 12 points to pull back ahead and took a 26-24 lead into halftime.
Out of the break, South Carolina ripped off a 12-2 run to take an eight-point lead — the largest deficit UConn has faced to that point in the season. The Huskies fell behind by as many as 10 and looked dead in the water after scoring just four points through the first 7:28 of the third quarter.
Then UConn woke up. It went off on a 9-0 burst behind three straight 3-pointers from Heckel, Quiñonez and Fudd to pull within one, 40-39. However, the Gamecocks answered with the final four points of the period to take a 44-39 lead into the final quarter.
The Huskies struggled to close the gap in the fourth. They cut the deficit down to two, only for South Carolina to push it out to seven. Again, they got it within four, then gave up an 11-0 run that put the game away.
This is the third time UConn’s undefeated season has ended in the national semifinal, joining the 2016-17 and 2017-18 squads. The Huskies finish with a 38-1 record and fail to repeat as national champions.
