UConn hasn’t been too far from the top of the women’s basketball mountaintop over the past decade, but it’s been nine years since it won a national championship.
With an 82-59 win over South Carolina on Sunday, the Huskies are once again champions. They were dominant from the tip, with Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong scoring 24 points each, and Paige Bueckers adding 17. The win showed that the Huskies were a team of players that knew each other and their strengths, and knew they were capable of winning it all.
Here are the biggest takeaways from a game and a tournament that won’t be soon forgotten:
UConn’s offensive weapons were just too much to overcome
The Huskies shot 48 percent from the field. That kind of shooting is hard for any team to stop. The heart of it was UConn’s big three of Bueckers, Fudd and Strong, but the rest of the team did the work to make sure those three women could take their shots. UConn’s 18 assists doubled South Carolina’s total of nine. Players like Kaitlyn Chen made sure the ball got into the right hands, and that helped keep UConn’s runaway offensive train running.
We get to enjoy another year of Azzi Fudd with UConn
Azzi Fudd announced earlier in the tournament that she will stay for one more season in Storrs, Connecticut. As she’s dealt with knee injuries throughout her career, Fudd had two seasons where she didn’t play much, and she wants the chance to keep playing for UConn before heading to the WNBA (where she’s likely to be a lottery pick). Fudd’s decision means we get one more year of her teaming up with Sarah Strong for incredible shots. While the rest of the NCAA teams might not be happy to see another year of Fudd, basketball fans should be, especially after she won Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
Joyce Edwards vs. Sarah Strong is a matchup I hope we get more of
UConn’s Sarah Strong scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds on Sunday. At no point in the game — or honestly, for much of the tournament — did Strong look like a freshman. She had plenty of battles with South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards, another freshman. Edwards didn’t have quite as good of a game, but she scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds to cap off a solid tournament ...
