March Madness title game set as Paige Bueckers and UConn dismantle UCLA to book South Carolina showdown

For the 13th clip successful their history, the UConn Huskies women's hoops squad volition beryllium playing successful the nationalist title game.

Led by WBCA Freshman of the Year Sarah Strong, the Huskies dominated from opening to extremity arsenic they defeated No. 1 wide effect UCLA 85-51 successful Tampa. It's the largest borderline of triumph successful the past of the women's Final Four.

By game's end, the Huskies changeable 55 percent from the tract portion stifling everyone connected the Bruins not named Lauren Betts.

While Betts finished the nighttime with a game-high 26 points connected 11-for-18 shooting, lone 5 of the 9 different players connected UCLA that saw enactment successful this crippled logged points.

Excluding Betts, UCLA lone managed 25 combined points connected a 9-for-34 shooting line.

Meanwhile, UConn's Azzi Fudd had the champion fractional of her vocation with the Huskies arsenic she dropped 19 points successful the archetypal fractional of the game.

Paige Bueckers, the person of this portion playing successful her last games arsenic a portion of the team, enactment up 16 points and 5 rebounds.

Other UConn scorers included defender KK Arnold (9 points, 3 assists), defender Kaitlyn Chen (6 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists), and halfway Jana El-Alfy (6 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists). 

But it was Strong who led the mode for Connecticut - putting up 22 points portion shooting 9-fo-13 from the tract and adding 8 points and 2 assists to her tally.

The Huskies ne'er trailed astatine immoderate constituent successful the crippled and finished the archetypal 4th up by treble digits. By the extremity of the archetypal half, they were up 20 points - portion holding UCLA to conscionable 9 second-quarter points.

UConn outscored UCLA 43-29 successful the 2nd fractional arsenic Strong, Bueckers, & Co. cruised to an casual victory.

It sets up a decisive nationalist rubric crippled connected Sunday - a re-match of the 2022 nationalist title against South Carolina. The Gamecocks, coached by Dawn Staley, knocked disconnected chap one-seed Texas earlier successful the evening.

Staley won that crippled successful 2022 - winning South Carolina's archetypal women's hoops rubric and becoming the lone manager to ever bushed UConn manager Geno Auriemma successful a nationalist title game.

Earlier this season, UConn traveled down to Columbia, South Carolina to instrumentality connected the Gamecocks astatine Colonial Life Arena. The Huskies won by 29 and ended South Carolina's 71-game location winning streak.