TAMPA, Fla. — Dawn Staley and South Carolina hope to finish off a second straight season with an NCAA championship, which would give the Gamecocks a third title in four years.
To do so, they'll need to beat Paige Bueckers and UConn on Sunday.
A victory by Staley's squad would give her four titles — tying her with Kim Mulkey for the third most behind UConn's Geno Auriemma (11) and Tennessee's Pat Summitt (8). The Gamecocks would join the Huskies and Lady Vols as the only schools to ever win three championships in a four-year span.
Meanwhile, it’s been nine years since Auriemma’s team won the championship, which capped off a run of four consecutive titles from 2013-16.
UConn has reached the title game only once since 2016, and during that drought it has come up on the short end of heartbreaking last-second losses in the Final Four on buzzer-beaters. The Huskies’ last title game appearance came in 2022 when Staley’s team beat UConn to start the Gamecocks’ current run of success, a game that ended Auriemma’s perfect record in title games.
The only UConn player who saw significant time in the title game three years ago against South Carolina was Bueckers. She’ll be playing in her final game for UConn hoping to leave the school with a championship, joining many other Huskies greats who have played for Auriemma.
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