TAMPA, Fla. — The frustration of a national championship game slipping from the Gamecocks’ fingertips reached a melting point when Sania Feagin fouled Paige Bueckers late in the third quarter. 

Dawn Staley had already taken a seat on South Carolina’s bench, but Bueckers bounced up from the court like it was a trampoline and immediately started to clap because she knew that shove was a white flag from South Carolina. 

Connecticut took the lead near the midway point of the first quarter and put the Gamecocks away by the end of the third.

By the fourth, Connecticut was having fun and the celebration began before the final score showed UConn won 82-59. 

The Huskies regained their spot at college basketball’s mountaintop for the first time since 2016. They also handed Staley her first loss in a national championship. 

“So many emotions,” Bueckers said shortly after she snipped her relic from the day from the basketball hoop. “Gratitude was the main one — of the journey, of the ups and downs, everything that it took to get to that point. And just overwhelming joy and just so happy for every single person who was a part of this journey. Just to be able to sum it up in a few words, joy and gratitude would be the forefront.” 

Azzi Fudd promised Bueckers on Saturday that she’d contribute more in this national championship game than their first trip back in 2022 when a bug plagued Connecticut’s locker room. 

Fudd made good on that promise, scoring 24 points, including 11 in the third quarter that put the game away. 

But it was freshman Sarah Strong who was the undoubted difference-maker. 

Strong was a two-way menace, muscling her way to rebounds and baskets. She did everything to help the Huskies win. She finished with 24 points, 15 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals. 

The “M-V-P” chants, though, broke out when Bueckers stepped up to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. 

Moments later, she checked out of the game for the final time. 

But Bueckers, who had 17 points, wasn’t even UConn’s best player in Sunday’s game. 

The Huskies won Sunday because at some point along the way this season, they turned into an absolute machine. 

Connecticut won its final 16 games to finish with a 37-3 overall record. The Huskies waltzed through the NCAA Tournament, winning each game by no fewer than 14 points. 

“Honestly that’s how we’ve been almost our entire season,” Ashlynn Shade said. “Obviously some players throughout the season will have big games, big career nights, but this whole tournament you could just tell that we were playing connected basketball that every single person on the team was contributing.” 

This is Connecticut’s way after all. 

Even in the days when Breanna Stewart helped Connecticut win four straight titles, it was never about one singular player but rather about the Huskies collectively as a team. 

“We thought leading up to this weekend, the Final Four game, last game and this game, that we hadn’t played our best team basketball yet in the tournament,” Bueckers said. “But we thought we were saving our best performances for this weekend. And it’s been just, I think, a great summary of what we have been this entire season of being a team, staying connected, on any given night it can be anybody’s night. And how we play as a team, and I think that was just a great showing for that between last game and this game. So it’s extremely fitting.” 

In the end, Sunday’s tilt came down to one simple fact: The Huskies wanted it more. 

They wanted to end the nearly decade-long title drought that had hung over the program and Geno Auriemma. They wanted retribution from what South Carolina did to it in the national championship. 

And Connecticut collectively wanted it for Bueckers, who will close the college chapter of a career as a winner.