Wayne grad Bree Hall, a freshman guard for South Carolina, hit a free throw and collected three rebounds in 10 minutes of action.
With Staley calling the shots in a $5,000 letterman jacket, South Carolina took UConn to school on the boards and capped a wire-to-wire run as the No. 1 team in the country in The Associated Press poll. The Gamecocks also won the championship in 2017 with A’ja Wilson leading the way.
This time it was Boston — the AP Player of the Year — and her fellow South Carolina post players who dominated on the game’s biggest stage. The Gamecocks outrebounded UConn by 25, including a 21-6 advantage on offensive boards. They also clamped down on star Paige Bueckers and the Huskies on defense, just like they did all season long.
It was South Carolina’s night from the start. The Gamecocks (35-2) jumped out to an 11-2 lead, grabbing nearly every rebound on both ends of the court. They led to 22-8 after one quarter much to the delight of their faithful fans, who made the trip to Minneapolis to be part of the sellout crowd.
UConn (30-6) trailed by 16 in the second quarter before Bueckers, a Minnesota native, got going. After having just one shot in the first quarter, she scored nine points in the second to get the Huskies within 35-27 at the half. She finished with 14.
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. UConn missed its first eight 3-point attempts until Caroline Ducharme made one from the wing and Evina Westbrook followed with another to get the Huskies within 43-37.
That’s as close as they could get because of Henderson.
The senior guard 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, and the Huskies couldn’t recover.
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