South Carolina Stuns Undefeated UConn in Women's Final Four Upset

South Carolina dismantled the most dominant team in college basketball Friday night, holding UConn to a season-low 48 points and ending the Huskies' 54-game winning streak with a 62-48 Final Four victory at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix. The Gamecocks, who suffered a lopsided 82-59 loss to UConn in last year's national championship game, got their revenge in decisive fashion, and the final moments of the game spilled into a heated sideline confrontation between two of the sport's most accomplished coaches.

Ta'Niya Latson led South Carolina offensively, posting 16 points and 11 rebounds for her first double-double of the season. Freshman Agot Makeer added 14 points, her fifth consecutive double-figure scoring game in the NCAA tournament after reaching that mark just three times all regular season. Joyce Edwards contributed 11 points and eight rebounds while anchoring a defensive performance that suffocated a UConn offense that had averaged 87.9 points per game coming in.

The Gamecocks assigned Edwards and Raven Johnson as the primary defenders on Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd, respectively, and the results were devastating. UConn's two stars shot a combined 7-of-31 from the field. Fudd, who averaged 17.5 points per game this season and shot 45.5 percent from three, missed her first three attempts and did not convert her first basket until a paint floater with 2:26 remaining in the first half. She finished with just eight points on 3-of-15 shooting. The Huskies shot 31 percent for the game on 11-of-44 from the field, with eight turnovers.

UConn threatened briefly in the third quarter, stringing together three consecutive three-pointers from Kayleigh Heckel, Blanca Quiñonez, and Fudd to trim the deficit to 40-39 with just over a minute remaining in the period. But Tessa Johnson scored the final four points of the quarter to push South Carolina back in front 44-39, and UConn managed just nine points in the fourth. The 14-point margin was UConn's worst loss since February 11, 2024, when Staley's Gamecocks defeated the Huskies by 18. It also marked the first time since the 2022 title game that UConn had been held below 50 points.

The postgame conversation shifted quickly to what unfolded on the sideline in the game's final seconds. Geno Auriemma, who had already criticized both the officiating and Staley during his in-game interview before the fourth quarter, walked toward Staley as the clock expired. Auriemma had to be physically pulled back by assistants and officials as the exchange grew visibly contentious. He left the court without shaking the opposing coaches' hands.

In her postgame interview, Staley defended herself while acknowledging the confrontation. "I'm of integrity, so if I did something wrong to Geno I had no idea what I did," she said. "I guess he thought I didn't shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I don't know, I went down there at pregame shook everybody on his staff's hand. Sometimes things get heated, we move on."

Auriemma had directed his frustration at the officiating during UConn's third quarter, pointing out that all six fouls in the period were called against his team. "They've been beating the s*** out of our guys the entire game," he said. South Carolina advances to the national championship game, one round further than last spring, with a chance to reclaim the title the Gamecocks held before UConn's dominant 2024-25 run.