South Carolina hands UConn first loss, reaches 4th NCAA final in 5 years

PHOENIX – One of the first things South Carolina saw every morning during the offseason was the score of its national championship loss to UConn a year ago.

Molly Binetti, South Carolina’s women’s basketball sports performance coach, had the score up on the TVs in the weight room by 6 a.m. every day, so the Gamecocks would never forget that feeling. It was shown so much that even newcomers like Ta’Niya Latson began to feel the pain.

“We saw that in our faces, so even though I didn’t experience that, I had to take on that because I knew that it was just more than just myself,” Latson said. “It was for the program, for the team and for the coaches.”

Well, in Friday’s national semifinal, the Gamecocks finally got their revenge. South Carolina beat UConn 62-48 to make its third straight national championship game and fourth in five years. As the final seconds were ticking off, UConn coach Geno Auriemma walked up to South Carolina coach Dawn Staley and the two exchanged words. Assistant coaches got between them and moved Auriemma away. He walked off the floor after the game and did not go through the handshake line with Staley or anybody from South Carolina, instead leaving for the locker room before any players or coaches.

After all of the drama, the Gamecocks are heading back to the championship game and will play No. 1 UCLA on Sunday.

The Gamecocks pulled the upset over top-seeded UConn by stifling a Huskies’ offense that has been scoring at will this season.

UConn averaged 87 points per game this season, led by player of the year Sarah Strong, but couldn’t get much going against South Carolina’s aggressive and physical defense.

Strong scored just 11 points. All-American Azzi Fudd had just 8 points and shot 3 of 15 from the field, and the entire Huskies’ offense shot just 31% from the field.

South Carolina didn’t shoot much better, just 37% from the field, but the Gamecocks’ defensive versatility gave UConn issues throughout the game. It’s why even after making just four shots in the second quarter, the Gamecocks were trailing by only two points at halftime.

The third quarter changed the game for South Carolina, though. Though their defensive intensity continued, holding UConn to just 29% shooting, its offense woke up.

The Gamecocks shot 46% from the field in the third quarter and made 8 of 10 free throws to take a 10-point lead with three minutes left in the quarter.

Facing its largest deficit of the season, UConn answered with back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers, but as it did throughout the game, South Carolina answered with a run of its own. The Gamecocks scored four straight to take a five-point lead into the quarter break. The frustration turned into a quarter-break rant from Auriemma.

“There were six fouls called that quarter, all of them against us,” he said during an in-game interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “And I’m not making excuses because we haven’t been able to make a shot. But this is ridiculous. Their coach ran some rage on the sideline and called the referees some names you don’t want to hear. And now we get 6 to 0, and I got a kid with a ripped jersey. And they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ C’mon man, this is the national championship.”

It was unclear whether a South Carolina player had made an initial tear on Strong’s jersey, but after a pause in action following her missed shot, she tore the jersey from the neckline. After the game, Strong said she ripped her jersey “by accident.” She changed jerseys on the sideline.

South Carolina never let UConn back into the game in the fourth quarter. Instead it pulled away in the final minutes and got its revenge after last season.

UCLA 51, Texas 44: Cori Close said Thursday that her biggest regret of last year’s postseason was that she didn’t celebrate her UCLA team enough.

The Bruins’ head coach will have a chance to remedy that Sunday in Phoenix.

For the first time in program history, UCLA is on to the NCAA national championship game after the Bruins held on against fellow No. 1 seed Texas 51-44 on Friday night in a doozy at Mortgage Matchup Center.

The Bruins will take on South Carolina, which upset UConn earlier in the night amid drama between head coaches Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley.

The Bruins ultimately had the cushion they needed to get the job done in one of the ugliest games of both their seasons and the tournament, thanks to getting hot in the fourth quarter on a night when offense was difficult to come by for both teams. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, UCLA led just 31-28. But Close’s team rattled off a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the final period, which ended up being just enough — especially after Texas made a 7-0 run of its own late to bring the game within 3 points with a little more than a minute to play.

Star center Lauren Betts led the way with 16 points and had some help from guards Gabriela Jaquez and Gianna Kneepkens, who finished with 10 each.

Texas star Madison Booker, meanwhile, scored just six points and shot 3 of 23 from the field on an uncharacteristically cold night for the Longhorns’ most dominant player. Texas as a whole shot just 31% from the field, though the Bruins weren’t much better with their 41% clip.

The win on Friday comes after Texas beat UCLA in late November by 11 points and Betts had just eight points in the Las Vegas matchup. Perhaps more importantly the victory is a year after the Bruins were blown out in the Final Four and left Tampa crushed after their best team in decades fell short of playing for the ultimate prize.

Betts, the senior, was asked Thursday if there was any added pressure for this Bruins team, which is loaded with fellow seniors who know what’s on the line this weekend.

“I think in the back of our heads, we all know that this is our last go at this,” she said. “It’s all or nothing for all of us.”

The Bruins will need to have a more productive outing Sunday if they want to hang with a South Carolina team that beat UConn 62-48 but is averaging 86.5 points per game for the season.

The Bruins and Gamecocks did not play this season, but did meet last year in the regular season, with UCLA winning by 15.