Home-grown star Paige Bueckers and her perennial basketball powerhouse were the sentimental favorites at Target Center, but South Carolina was on a mission.
A year after a bitter one-point loss in the national semifinals, the Gamecocks took the Final Four by storm in downtown Minneapolis, leading from the opening minutes to the end of a convincing 65-49 win over Connecticut.
Destanni Henderson scored a career-high 26 points, Aliyah Boston added 11 points and 16 rebounds, and the Gamecocks (35-2) handed the Huskies their first loss in 12 NCAA title games.
“We played every possession like it was our last possession,” said South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, whose legend continues to grow. “They were determined to be champions today.”
UConn (30-6) trailed by 16 in the second quarter before Bueckers got going. After having just one shot in the first quarter, the all-American from Hopkins scored nine points in the second to get the Huskies within 35-27 at the half.
"There's fatigue for the whole team, but that's not an excuse," said Bueckers, who finished with 14 points. "You gotta give your all, and whatever you have left, you just got to use it. I wanted to leave nothing on the floor, I just wanted to give it my all.
The Huskies finished up a challenging season when a number of players, Bueckers included, lost playing time because of injuries and still came within 40 minutes of another national crown.
"The game wasn't what we wanted to see," UConn fan Laura Carroll told WCCO's Jonathan Lowe. "But the way the season went, we didn't expect to be here at all."
South Carolina and its fans expected it.
Like the championship game itself, the Gamecocks were ranked number one in the polls from beginning to end.
"This was amazing, I'm so proud of them, they fought so hard," said South Carolina fan Patricia Boswell-Glasgow who told Lowe that Staley is creating greatness.
"She did exactly what she said she was going to do when she was hired," said Boswell-Glasgow. "She lifts all of us up, she is a trailblazer in sports."
An 8-2 run to start the third quarter put South Carolina up 43-29 before the Huskies finally started connecting from behind the arc to get to within 43-37.
That’s as close as they could get because of Destanni Henderson, who had a three-point play to close the third quarter and then had the team’s first four points in the fourth to restore the double-digit lead.
The Huskies couldn’t recover.
“We just didn’t have enough,” said UConn coach Geno Auriemma. “They were just too good for us.”
The best of all during the weekend in downtown Minneapolis was the Gamecocks' Aliyah Boston, who scored 11 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to win the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player award.
It came a year after Boston missed a layup at the end of the semifinal against Stanford that would have put South Carolina in the final.
“Obviously, I’ve been thinking about this since last season. Everyone had a picture of me crying,” said Boston. “Today, we’re national champions and I’m in tears.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story