By Grace Raynor
The Athletic has live coverage of Texas vs. South Carolina and UCLA vs. UConn in the 2025 Women’s Final Four.
SPOKANE, Wash. — No. 2 UConn beat No. 1 USC 78-64 on Monday night in Spokane, Wash., propelling the Huskies to a record 24th Final Four and their 16th since 2008.
The Trojans were without sophomore sensation JuJu Watkins, and ultimately couldn’t counteract UConn’s star power. Paige Bueckers, the star senior guard, finished with 31 points and six assists on 9-of-18 shooting. This, after dropping a career-high 40 against Oklahoma in the Sweet 16.
With UConn’s Elite Eight victory, the Final Four is now officially set. And there will be plenty of star power in Tampa, Fla., later this week.
PAIGE. BUECKERS.
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/Ib7amFkhpl
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) April 1, 2025
Against USC, true freshman forward Sarah Strong — The Athletic’s unanimous Freshman of the Year — was also dominant for the Huskies, finishing with 22 points and 17 rebounds. She was up to 15 points by halftime. UConn coach Geno Auriemma — who also praised guard Kaitlyn Chen for her 15 points — said the Huskies put in a handful of plays specifically for Strong heading into Monday, knowing that USC would make things difficult on Bueckers early. The 19-year-old Strong hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter alone and finished four-of-six from beyond the arc.
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“I’ll include Paige in this too, but not much surprises me. Not much that Sarah does makes me go, ‘Wow, I didn’t know she could do that,’” Auriemma said. “Maybe I’m just so high on her that there’s stuff that I saw her do in high school that I just close my eyes and thought, ‘Wow, if you transfer this to college, I don’t think anybody’s going to be able to handle that because nobody has anybody that has the skill set that she has.’
“I think the confidence that we have in Paige and Sarah specifically makes everybody on our team feel really, really, really assured that, ‘I just have to do my part and it will be good enough.’”
Bueckers hasn’t shied away from the expectations at UConn — where national championships are the standard. The Huskies haven’t won it all since 2016, and anything short of a trophy in Tampa would forever haunt Bueckers, coach Auriemma’s only superstar without a title.
But first, the Huskies must go through UCLA.
The top-seeded Bruins beat No. 3 LSU 72-65 in Spokane on Sunday and have one of the hardest players in the tournament to guard in 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts. Betts averages 20 points per game but has gone for at least 30 in two of her last three games. Even on a slow night for her, when she scored 17 against LSU, the Bruins had too much depth for the Tigers to overcome.
The Bruins have never won a national championship in women’s basketball and are determined to bring home some new hardware under coach Cori Close.
Texas, which faces South Carolina, hasn’t won a national title since 1986. Auriemma and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, meanwhile, are well-rehearsed with the stakes this high. Auriemma is seeking his 12th title, while Staley is looking to make South Carolina the sport’s first back-to-back champion since UConn in 2015 and 2016.
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No. 1 Texas beat No. 2 TCU 58-47 in Birmingham, setting the stage for a fourth meeting between the Longhorns and the No. 1 Gamecocks on Friday. South Carolina, winner of three national championships under coach Dawn Staley, is looking to go back-to-back for its second consecutive title and third championship in the past four years. It punched their ticket by beating Duke 54-50 on Sunday and enters the matchup with Texas having beaten the Longhorns in two of the previous three meetings this season, including the SEC Championship Game.
The Longhorns and Gamecocks will tip at 7 p.m. ET on Friday. The Huskies and Bruins will then take center stage at 9 p.m. ET. Both games will air on ESPN.
“Obviously these games are really, really, really hard,” Auriemma said. “There’s a way that you win these games and, generally speaking, they are on the backs of one or two particular players that are going to put the team on their backs and get us to the next level, to get us to the Final Four.”
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Grace Raynor is a staff writer for The Athletic covering recruiting and southeastern college football. A native of western North Carolina, she graduated from the University of North Carolina. Follow Grace on Twitter @gmraynor
