Paige Bueckers heads into her final collegiate with one goal on her mind: to win that elusive national championship.
Bueckers and UConn women’s basketball will face South Carolina on Sunday at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, for a chance to win the 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament national championship. Bueckers, who announced her intention to enter the 2025 WNBA draft, scored 17 points in an 85-51 win over UCLA in the Final Four on Friday.
Despite the blowout nature of the win and UConn’s earlier 87-58 victory over South Carolina earlier this season, Bueckers is convinced she and her teammates still have other level to hit in her final collegiate game.
‘I still think we got another level to tap into, and I think that’s what we save it for,’ Bueckers told the UConn locker room after the game. ‘We don’t need any extra incentive. The game earlier this season (against South Carolina) means nothing. It’s 0-0, the record’s 0-0 and we’re both trying to go 1-0.
‘Get some sleep tonight, get some rest because the game is early on Sunday, so we’ll need to be rested and recovered. We have 40 minutes to give everything we have in our entire souls and bodies.’
Bueckers nearly recorded a triple-double with 12 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in the Huskies’ win over the Gamecocks on Feb. 16 in Greenville, South Carolina.
Sunday will mark the second national championship matchup between the two programs and the 16th overall meeting between the leading women’s college basketball teams. UConn leads the all-time series 10-5, but South Carolina has won five of the last seven matchups.
The Huskies have opened as -5.5 favorites over the Gamecocks, according to BetMGM as of Friday night.