The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
What went wrong for the Huskies?
South Carolina dominated from the start of the title game
It didn’t take long Sunday night to realize that UConn was overmatched in the national championship game against top-seeded and top-ranked South Carolina.
Five minutes in, it was 13-2. A few minutes later it was 17-4. And while UConn rallied a handful of times, pulling to within six points toward the end of the third quarter, the Gamecocks were too much for the Huskies in a 64-49 win. It marked the first time in 12 tries that UConn has lost a national championship game.
“I think they deserved it 100 percent,” coach Geno Auriemma said after the game. “They were the best team all year.”
Here is what went wrong for UConn in its national title game loss:
REBOUNDING, REBOUNDING, REBOUNDING
When South Carolina jumped ou—t to an 11-2 lead early in the first quarter, the Gamecocks held an 8 to 1 rebounding advantage, including 5 offensive boards. That was the story, unfortunately, for UConn all night. The final tally when it came to rebounds was 49 for South Carolina, 24 for the Huskies. That included 21 offensive boards and 22 secondchance points for South Carolina.
Aliyah Boston, who was pursued by UConn as a high school student, grabbed 16 of those rebounds and added 11 points. She wasn’t quite as dominant on offense as she has been at other points during the season, but she didn’t have to be.
“We knew that was going to be the deciding factor,” Auriemma said of rebounding. “We said in the Stanford game the reason we won is because we outrebounded them and we made our free throws when they counted. We knew
tonight that if we didn’t hold our own on the boards that it was going to be a really bad night for us, and that’s exactly what happened.”
IT WAS DESTANNI
Plenty of focus was on Boston coming into the game. The player that stood out the most was Destanni Henderson. The senior guard scored 26 points, shooting 9 for 20, including 3 for 6 from behind the 3-point line. It was the sort of performance Auriemma has been talking about in recent weeks, saying that a single player could completely change the outcome of one of these NCAA Tournament games.
Henderson also gave UConn fits — sophomore Paige Bueckers included — while on defense. The overall performance was reminiscent of dominant guards that have eliminated the Huskies the last five trips to the Final Four.
In 2017, it was Mississippi State’s duo of Victoria Vivians (19 points) and Morgan Williams (13 points) in the national semifinal. The following year Notre Dame’s Jackie Yong and Arike Ogunbowale torched UConn for 32 and 27 points, respectively. Ogunbowale added 23 points the following year. And in 2021, it was Aari McDonald with 26 points for Arizona to again eliminate UConn in the semifinal.
“Their guards completely, I thought, dominated the game on the perimeter and made it really difficult for any of our guys to get any good looks,” Auriemma said of South Carolina.
SENIOR SLUMP
It was UConn’s seniors that helped will them to victory Friday night over Stanford. Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson Ododa rallied from an early benching and were key factors down the stretch. Evina Westbrook had 3 3-pointers.
Williams was a nonfactor Sunday night against South Carolina with 2 points on 1 for 7 shooting. She had 1 rebound. Westbrook had 7 points on 3 for 10 shooting, but had 3 turnovers. Nelson-Ododa had 4 points and only 2 rebounds while adding 3 turnovers.
FREE THROWS
When a team is rebounding the way South Carolina was, its players are more likely to get to the free throw line, Auriemma said after the game.
That was the case Sunday. South Carolina took 26 free throw shots, sinking 17. UConn only had 4, making 1. It wasn’t UConn’s first time struggling to get to the line during the NCAA Tournament. But considering the teams were nearly even when it came to points in the paint, it’s at least a little surprising the Huskies couldn’t draw a few more fouls down low.
THE BETTER TEAM WON
It’s a tough one to accept for many UConn fans, but South Carolina was simply the better team Sunday night. They were dominant on both ends and controlled the boards like UConn hadn’t seen all season. Auriemma has coached plenty of good teams and in the 11 times Auriemma’s teams made the championship before this, at least 10 of them were better.
This team? He knew it was an uphill battle.
“We played like we were the better team, and we were well balanced and we had all the bases covered and we had everything that you needed to win a championship,” Auriemma said. “I told Dawn (Staley) after the game, they were the best team in the country all year. They were No. 1 in the country in November when we saw them down in the Bahamas, and they’re the best team in the country today.”