After finishing with a 35-2 regular season record, the Gamecocks came to play in March, defeating five of their seven opponents by more than 16 points all postseason.

UConn was one of the two exceptions to that stat, but they did not start the game off pretty.

The first quarter ended with a score of UConn trailing 22-8, after this, the Huskies stayed close in the box score, but could never really come back from the deficit of the first.

The second quarter is where things finally started to look up for the Huskies, outscoring the Gamecocks 19-13, but going into the half the Huskies were still down 37-25.

Of course, games aren’t won from one good quarter of play and the Huskies knew that. Going into the third they wanted to make this comeback and you could see it on the court.

The score was 46-37 Gamecocks to end the quarter, and everyone was wondering if UConn could make the comeback. Despite their efforts, South Carolina came out on top.

“South Carolina just seemed like the better team from start to finish,” described Braxton Hart ’25, “Even though UConn shot better, South Carolina played an all around better game,” he added.

South Carolina was led by forward Aliyah Boston, who finished the game with 11 points and 16 rebounds, along with guard Destanni Henderson, who had a career-high 26 points and four assists to go with it. 

“We have been putting in the hard work and waiting for this moment, all my hard work, all my focus, me trusting the process, me trusting Dawn. She was just put in a position just to be great. And today we’re national champions,” stated guard Destanni Henderson in a television interview, via Alexandra Petri from nytimes.com.

Alyiah Boston, the AP Player of the Year, and her fellow South Carolina post players dominated the post on the game’s biggest stage.

 The Gamecocks outrebounded UConn 49-24, along with a 21-6 advantage on offensive rebounds, They also clamped down college basketball star Paige Bueckers and the Huskies on defense, just like they did all season long.

“They deserved it 100%,” UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said. “They were the best team all year. The first five minutes, I thought they came out and set the tone then and therefore how the game was going to be played,” via Doug Feinberg of woodtv.com.

With this win, South Carolina becomes just the eighth program to win multiple national titles with its first championship coming in 2017, where they defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs 67-55.

“I really enjoyed watching the girl’s NCAA final game. Watching South Carolina come out strong and fast from the beginning of the game and dominate for the entire game was thrilling,” stated Mrs. Tori Hartman MV math teacher.