{"id":563360,"date":"2026-04-04T03:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563360\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:29:07","slug":"south-carolina-smothers-uconn-62-48-to-advance-to-ncaa-title-game-snaps-huskies-54-game-win-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563360\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina smothers UConn 62-48 to advance to NCAA title game, snaps Huskies\u2019 54-game win streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Dawn Staley and South Carolina are back in the NCAA Tournament title game after knocking off unbeaten UConn and Geno Auriemma in a physical contest that ended with a heated exchange<\/a> between the game\u2019s most recognizable coaches.<\/p>\n

Ta\u2019Niya Latson scored 16 and Agot Makeer added 14 points and South Carolina played stifling defense to beat UConn 62-48 on Friday night, ending the Huskies\u2019 54-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

The Gamecocks have now reached the NCAA championship game in four of the last five seasons, including the past three. They will be looking to win a fourth national title Sunday when they face the winner of the semifinal Texas and UCLA semifinal, capping off another March Madness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought our players just locked in once we built a little lead. We got suggestions from coaches as to should we change our defense, start switching everything. I\u2019m like, No, this is what is working,\u201d Staley said. \u201cLet\u2019s continue to do what\u2019s working.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the final seconds ticked down, Auriemma walked down the sideline to shake hands with Staley and had an animated conversation with her while pointing to the floor. Staley yelled back at him as assistants from both teams separated the two.<\/p>\n

When the clock finally ran out, Auriemma walked straight to the tunnel and didn\u2019t shake hands. The two teams did shake hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea,\u201d Staley said when asked what happened between the coaches. \u201cBut I\u2019m gonna let you know this, I\u2019m of integrity. I\u2019m of integrity. So if I did something wrong, to Geno, I had no idea what I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess he thought I didn\u2019t shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I didn\u2019t know. I went down there pregame, shook everybody on his staff\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what he came with after the game, but, hey, sometimes things get heated. We move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma didn\u2019t want to disclose what he said to Staley specifically, but made it a point of saying he was annoyed about the lack of a pregame handshake.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been coaching and been to 25 Final Fours,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cProtocol is we meet at halfcourt, two coaches meet at halfcourt and shake hands. They announce it on the loudspeaker, waited there for three minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma was also upset that in the third quarter star Sarah Strong\u2019s jersey was ripped, in his opinion because of South Carolina\u2019s physical defense.<\/p>\n

Strong said: \u201cIt was an accident, I missed my shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn (38-1) entered the Final Four undefeated for the ninth time in school history, and for the third straight time left without a title. The Huskies also lost in the 2017 and 2018 national semifinals. This was the fewest points UConn had scored since putting up 49 points in a national championship game loss to the Gamecocks in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach was pretty mad going into the half,\u201d Latson said of Staley. \u201cShe was yelling \u2018Meet the moment! Meet the moment!\u2019 We couldn\u2019t be scared to play on this stage, especially against UConn. I mean, they were undefeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Huskies and Gamecocks played last season for the title and UConn came away with an 82-59 rout<\/a> for the school\u2019s 12th national championship. UConn also beat South Carolina handily during the 2024-25 regular season.<\/p>\n

Leading 46-44 a few minutes into the third quarter, South Carolina scored five straight points, capped by Agot Makeer\u2019s 3-pointer to extend the advantage to seven.<\/p>\n

Strong hit a 3-pointer to get the Huskies back within 51-47 with 4:39 left. The Huskies didn\u2019t score again until Strong hit a free throw with 30.8 seconds left, after South Carolina had scored 11 straight points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our defense is pretty elite. We were super prepared by all of our coaches,\u201d Makeer said. \u201cI think we all wanted this really bad. We were just ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Carolina clamped down on UConn\u2019s two stars. Strong, who was honored as the AP Player of the Year<\/a> on Thursday, had 12 points and 12 rebounds, but went 4 for 16 from the field. Azzi Fudd had just eight points for the Huskies, making only 3 of 15 shots.<\/p>\n

UConn had its worst shooting night of the season finishing 19 for 61 (31.1%) from the field.<\/p>\n

Both teams had cruised to the Final Four, each winning in the first four rounds of the tournament easily. The Huskies had been rarely challenged all season long, routing their Big East opponents by record margins.<\/p>\n

Facing their first real test in a long time, they had no answer.<\/p>\n

The opening 20 minutes was full of missed shots and turnovers. The two teams combined to shoot 22 for 62 from the field (35.4%) and had 14 turnovers. UConn led 26-24 at the half.<\/p>\n

There were dozens of former Huskies and Gamecocks players in the crowd including Diana Taurasi, Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston. Boston was sitting next to Flavor Flav<\/a>, who is a huge supporter of women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-womens-bracket<\/a> and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Dawn Staley and South Carolina are back in the NCAA Tournament title game after knocking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2648,4044,2662,2000,8922,126145,1996,2083,14824,793,147548,245156,126144,2833,20510,8643,5614,1782,59129,99,795,1765,2664],"class_list":{"0":"post-563360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-aliyah-boston","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-connecticut","12":"tag-connecticut-huskies","13":"tag-connecticut-huskies-womens-basketball","14":"tag-ct-state-wire","15":"tag-dawn-staley","16":"tag-diana-taurasi","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-march-madness-ncaa-tournament","19":"tag-ncaa-womens-bracket","20":"tag-ncaa-womens-division-i-basketball-championship","21":"tag-paige-bueckers","22":"tag-sarah-strong","23":"tag-sc-state-wire","24":"tag-south-carolina","25":"tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","26":"tag-south-carolina-gamecocks-womens-basketball","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-u-s-news","29":"tag-womens-sports","30":"tag-womens-college-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}