Lulu KesinGreenville News
TAMPA, Fla. —South Carolina women's basketballis one win away from repeating as national champions.
The No. 1 seed Gamecocks (35-3) face No. 2 seed UConn on Sunday (3 p.m., ABC) in Amalie Arena. The Huskies won 87-58 on the Gamecocks' home court in February.
As South Carolina and coach Dawn Staley seek revenge, so do the Huskies (36-3), who lost in the 2022 championship, making Staley the only coach to ever beat Geno Auriemma in a title game.
"We were embarrassed," South Carolina forward Chloe Kitts said. "We were outhustled, every one of them outworked us."
Staley said she isn't thinking of Sunday's game in a "get back" at UConn way.
"It's our standard that we really just try to apply every day we're out there as a team," Staley said. "To understand what our standard is individually and collectively and the 'get back' will be within that. If we're able to play within our standards and habits, things will take care of themselves."
The 29-point loss was South Carolina's largest since a 32-point loss to Georgia in the 2011 SEC Tournament and tied for fifth in the Gamecocks' biggest losses under Staley.
South Carolina's Te-Hina Paopao was particularly critical of her own performance, saying that she wasn't a leader for her teammates, despite scoring 10 points.
Paopao said she let her team down and wanted to be better in every way, but specifically mentioned her defense both on and off the ball.
Much of UConn's success came from behind the 3-point line (13-of-28) and in transition, feeding off of misses from South Carolina. Paopao wasn't the only defender who didn't have their best day, as most of the Gamecocks failed to halt the magic of the Huskies' offense.
UConn guard Azzi Fudd finished with 28 points on 6-of-10 shooting from behind the arc, something that can't be repeated on Sunday for South Carolina.
"Just start off really physical on defense and that will fuel my offense for sure," Paopao said Saturday after scoring a team-high 14 points and grabbing three steals in Friday's Final Four win.
Starting point guard Raven Johnson mentioned how UConn's specialty is thriving off of bad basketball and bad shots and how aggressiveness and discipline on defense have to be matched with productive ball movement and dominant scoring.
"Knowing your scout, that's a key for this game" Johnson said. "These are players that know how to create for themselves, shots for themselves and for others. It's little things like that."
UConn guard Paige Bueckers is averaging 20 points but has scored 31 or more in three of the last four NCAA tournament games. She dished 10 assists and despite only scoring 12 points at South Carolina and was instrumental to how UConn's offense just ran South Carolina out of the gym.
Freshman Sarah Strong faced freshman Joyce Edwards, South Carolina's leading scorer who dropped 28 points against Florida the game before. Edwards was the lone bright spot for the Gamecocks, finishing with 17 points, but Strong had a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Both scored in double figures in their respective Final Four games on Friday.
Four of UConn's five starters finished with 10 vs South Carolina whereas Paopao was the only one to score over seven points from South Carolina's starting lineup.
"The last time we played them, we weren't ourselves," Johnson said. "We didn't even look like ourselves, we said 'don't even count that game' that was six weeks ago, we're a whole new team now. We're coming in with a whole new mindset and we know what we're capable of. We aren't even looking at the last game, it was a lesson-learned but I think we're ready."
TIMEOUT: Why Dawn Staley is unlikely to call timeout in Final Four. South Carolina players love her for it
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her atlkesin@gannett.comand follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
