WOMEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Dynasty fading? Careful who you are referring to.

It was in the pre-season of women’s college basketball that someone wrote this, referring to the University of Connecticut program under Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma. Why? Who knows, but the Huskies haven’t exactly faded into Sunday night‘s championship game against No. 1-seeded South Carolina.

It’s a rematch of an early-season game when the Gamecocks turned a 55-55 tie after three quarters into a 72-58 rout by outscoring UConn, 17-3, over those final 10 minutes. It was a weird finish, sophomore superstar Paige Bueckers was heavily defended to keep her from running the offense, and after that Auriemma’s team became a mash unit with eight injuries that included Bueckers missing 18 games after knee surgery was required when she stumbled in the final minutes of the impressive win over Notre Dame.

That South Carolina game was played at the Bahamas Invitational, but this one will be played at Bueckers’ home state of Minnesota at the Target Center in Minneapolis. That’s where the Huskes survived a late comeback by defending champion Stanford to send the Cardinal packing as they did to North Carolina State. That’s two top seeds they ousted and now comes the Gamecocks and their 6-5 junior Aliyah Boston. They are 33-2 after disposing of No. 1-seeded Louisville, 72-59, in Friday’s other semifinals.

And if South Carolina expected to avenge last year’s semifinals setback against Stanford, it will have to settle for Connecticut, which remarkably managed to post a 30-5 record and now owns 14 straight wins. Early in the season, it had injured freshmen in guards Azzi Fudd and Carolina Ducharme after learning that starting 6-2 junior Aubrey Griffin would be sidelined for the season after knee surgery. Then came injuries to senior post Olivia Nelson-Ododa, sophomore point guard Nika Muhl, senior guard Christyn Williams, and then in the first quarter of the tournament win over Central Florida, down went 6-5 graduate senior Dorka Juhasz with a wrist injury that ended her season and maybe her college career.

But there they are. Auriemma, who has lacked bench strength through the years, found it this time. Back came Bueckers and after limited minutes, she has settled right back to her strength of engineering the offense, inside and outside shooting, aggressive defense, and versus NC State, she was awesome with 27 points, 21 coming in the final quarter and two overtimes. She made 7-of-9 tries from the field and converted 8-of-8 free throws.

Freebies was the decider for the Huskies in the final minutes after some dismal misses earlier. Fudd made good on 6-of-6 charity tosses, Williams was 2-for-2, senior Ervina Westbrook was 1-for-1, sophomore Aaliyah Edwards tossed in 1-of-2, as did Nelson-Ododa. The Cardinal, down at one time by nine points, resorted to fouling as the clock ticked down, but it backfired when UConn cashed in from the line.

Auriemma now starts one group and then substitutes when he needs to. There’s not a weak link in the lineup, and he can call on Bueckers, Nelson-Ododa, Williams, Muhi, Edwards, Westbrook, and Duchamme. In reserve, there’s 6-5 freshman Amari Deberry and 6-5 sophomore Piath Gabriel.

Dynasty fading? Not this program. Can it defeat South Carolina? Who knows, but it’s there despite the doubting Thomases.