Published Apr 5, 2025
No. 2-seed UConn Women’s Hoops drub No. 1-overall seed Bruins in Final Four
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Cole Stefan  •  UConnReport
Women's Basketball and Football Beat Writer
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@Coldest_fan

Last year in Cleveland, Ohio, Paige Bueckers scored 17 points while Caitlin Clark had 21. The highly anticipated battle between two generational guards resulted in the UConn Women’s Basketball team’s fifth Final Four loss in eight seasons.

Looking at two individual performances, history almost disfavored No. 2-seed UConn again on Friday night in Tampa, Florida. Bueckers picked up 16 points, while Lauren Betts, the UCLA Bruins’ star center, had 26.

But this time around, the Huskies’ season did not end in national semifinal heartbreak.

UConn advanced to its 13th national championship game with an 85-51 beatdown of UCLA, the No. 1 overall seed, at a sold-out Amalie Arena.

The Huskies shot 55% from the floor, won the rebounding battle by five, picked up 13 steals and never trailed. The 34-point margin of victory marked the largest in a Final Four game in women’s basketball history.

Head coach Geno Auriemma felt “humbled” by Connecticut’s collective performance, one that he deemed “somewhat unexpected.”

“You always go into these games this time of the year expecting it to be incredibly difficult,” Auriemma explained postgame. “I do not think we made a mistake the entire evening, especially on the defensive end. I am incredibly proud of these guys and what they were able to do.”

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Friday resulted in the end of two separate streaks for Bueckers, who also hauled in five rebounds and picked up three steals. It marked the first time in nine games that the three-time WBCA Coaches’ All-American did not shoot 50% or better from the floor. Bueckers’ run of 30-point outings, which lasted three NCAA Tournament rounds, also ceased.

Even then, the 2025 Wade Trophy winner did not best the Bruins by herself. It was a collective team effort.

Azzi Fudd scored a combined 11 points between the Final Four and the national championship game in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2022. In one half of the 2025 National Semifinals, Fudd nearly doubled that total with 19 points on 7-11 shooting. The graduate guard took just one shot in the second half but remained involved elsewhere with an assist and three steals.

Even with her quiet second half, the Huskies still dominated. That occurred because WBCA Freshman of the Year Sarah Strong stepped up as the consistent scoring option. In those final 20 minutes, Strong shot 6-7 from the floor, scored 14 of her 22 points and grabbed five of her eight rebounds. The Big East Freshman of the Year was also potent from downtown; she shot 4-6 from long range. Yet the numbers on any box score do not fully describe Strong as an individual.

“Something that impresses me the most about her is how mature she plays and how even-keel she is,” Fudd expressed about the WBCA Coaches’ All-American. “You can never tell if she has got 20 points and 20 rebounds. … She looks at her opponent as another game that night. Does not matter where we are, what stage we are on.”

“Something that impresses me the most about her is how mature she plays and how even-keel she is.”
Azzi Fudd on Sarah Strong

It was more than just UConn’s big three that took over Tampa. Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen scored six points and dished out five assists. Sophomore guard KK Arnold picked up nine points, eight of which came in the final frame. Jana El Alfy supplemented the frontcourt with six points and eight rebounds while, in Bueckers’ words, being “the tone-setter for the night.”

The Huskies locked down the Big Ten Tournament champions in the second game of the Final Four doubleheader. UCLA posted season lows in points, rebounds (29), assists (11) and blocks (two).

Betts accounted for almost half of the Bruins’ points in their first Final Four appearance of the NCAA era, which dates back to 1982. Connecticut’s frontcourt contained the 6-foot-7 junior, limiting her to just five rebounds and two steals. Only junior guard Gabriela Jaquez had more rebounds at eight. Fellow junior Kiki Rice had as many points despite shooting 2-7 from the field, while graduate forward Angela Dugalic picked up six.

Although she lost the opening tip-off to Betts, El Alfy played her best basketball in a pivotal part of the season. The Egyptian native had two rebounds and two steals while breaking up multiple Bruins passes in the game’s first seven minutes.

Strong took over at the five following the media timeout. The Huskies’ small-ball lineup turned a four-point margin into a 10-point advantage in less than a minute behind threes on consecutive possessions. Bueckers kept UConn’s advantage in double figures with a buzzer-beating floater from near the left wing.

Fudd sparked the offense and scored seven of the Huskies’ 23 points at a 3-3 clip in that first quarter. The Virginia native followed that performance with Connecticut’s first four points of the second period and their only offense until an Ice Brady layup.

That cold spell did not stop Fudd’s momentum, however. After Arnold went 1-2 from the charity stripe, the Class of 2021’s No. 1 recruit scored eight of the Huskies’ last 12 points of the first half. Fudd’s third three-pointer of the game with around a minute left gave UConn a 42-22 advantage going into the break.

All the while, the Huskies’ defense stymied UCLA and held them to only nine points in the second quarter. Cori Close’s Bruins committed 14 turnovers, had three starters who did not score and attempted just 24 shots in the first half. Those ball-handling woes worsened as Connecticut scored their first four points of the second half off two UCLA giveaways.

The Bruins pulled within 18 behind a 6-0 run, but outside of their All-American center, they had no response for the North Carolina native. Strong shot 4-4 from the floor in the third quarter, and her two three-pointers in the period nearly iced the game for the Huskies.

The 6-foot-2 forward and the Minnesota accounted for 20 straight Connecticut points over a span that lasted until right before they exited. Arnold and Brady combined for 11 in the final frame as the Huskies completed the postseason sweep of Los Angeles-based power conference schools.

“We knew coming in we did not think we played our best team game yet,” Bueckers said afterward. “We have had some great individual performances, but to be able to put it all together on a night like this where we are playing against a really good UCLA team, it is very rewarding. It is the kind of basketball that we want to play.”

Only one team stands in UConn’s way of its 12th national title: the reigning national champion South Carolina Gamecocks. Tip-off Sunday in a rematch of the 2022 title game is at 3 p.m. on ABC.