On Sunday afternoon, it was a “Paige” out of the history books. The No. 2 seeded UConn women’s basketball team took down the No. 1 seeded reigning National Champions in the South Carolina Gamecocks, 82-59, for their twelfth National Championship.
You could not have written up this game, much less this season, any better as a Husky fan. It was a year full of broken records, accolades and the cherry on top of it all, a win in Paige Bueckers’ last game as a Husky in front of a sold-out crowd at Amalie Arena.
As soon as Bueckers exited the court for the last time, Bueckers hugged her head coach Geno Auriemma in a warm embrace and then continued to hug the rest of the bench.
“I love you. That’s all I could say. I love you.” said Auriemma in an interview postgame with Holly Rowe of ESPN.
Auriemma, who became the winningest coach in college basketball earlier in the season, finally put an end to his nine-year National Championship drought with this win, solidifying the Huskies as the top dogs and the titles, cheaper, by the dozen.
“These people that have been playing against us for the last seven, eight years have not played a University of Connecticut team, yet beating UConn always seemed like the national championship to them.” said Auriemma to the media postgame. “For us it always seemed like, if we ever got a chance to get healthy, this could be pretty good.”
Heading into this game, the team’s mindset was strictly focused on winning it for themselves, but more specifically Bueckers.
“It’s been a story of resilience, of gratitude, of adversity, of overcoming adversity and just responding to life’s challenges and trying to field them to make me a better person, a better person, a better player and continue to grow my leadership abilities in being a great teammate.” Bueckers said to the media postgame, when asked about her career as a UConn Husky and the injuries she faced throughout her career.
For the entire season, the trio of Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong has been leading the program all season long. In this championship game, the Huskies racked up their own individual accolades.
Bueckers brought herself to the No. 1 spot in points per game surpassing Maya Moore who averaged 19.7 points in 154 games, Fudd established cemented herself in the Huskies 1,000 points club and earned the Most Outstanding Player Award and Strong notched seven double doubles out of the nine games they played in the NCAA tournament.
In the first frame, it was a back-and-forth battle between both the squads, as they were hankering to get themselves up on the board. This was when Fudd began to keep getting shots up on the board and defy the odds against the Gamecocks’ premier defender, Chloe Kitts. The Huskies were up 19-14 at the end of the first quarter, and the Huskies prevented the Gamecocks from scoring over the last four minutes.
While the Huskies were still able to maintain their ability to get points up on the board in the first period, they still had yet to make a three and were 0-3 from beyond the arc.
However, despite going through a brief almost five-minute stretch, Fudd notched a jumper making her 1,000th point as a Husky and Ashlynn Shade drained a three pointer to close out the first half, with the Huskies at a comfortable 36-26 lead.
In addition to notching 1,000 points, Strong became the second player to record more than 11 rebounds in the first half of a national title game.
Coming out of the lockeroom for the second half, the Huskies were locked and loaded, Fudd reached 20 points for the first time since the first round of the NCAA tournament a mere three weeks ago.
Even with multiple players getting in foul trouble, the Huskies pulled through despite not putting up significant shooting accuracies compared to the first half. In the end of it all, they shot 48% from the field and 23% from beyond the arc.
All in all, not only did the Huskies put their all into this season, but they also put their all into this tournament and this game, with the mindset that nothing could stop them.
“All the hard work we put in as individuals and as a team and how much we stuck together through the good times and the bad and how connected we were,” Bueckers said to the media postgame, “We feel like we were so connected and nothing could break us […] To be able to sit up here with them, with the whole team and share this moment is extremely validating.”
However, as they say, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. Despite this being Bueckers’ last game as a UConn Husky, it is a new chapter in the legacy that is the UConn women’s basketball program. Husky fans should prepare to have their popcorn ready, because next season is going to be a wild ride.