⏪ Takeaways from Friday's Final Four

05.04.2026, 21:18 espn.com

PHOENIX -- South Carolina did what no other team was able to do in over 50 games: beat UConn.

The Gamecocks snapped the defending champion Huskies' 54-game winning streak Friday in the Final Four, beating UConn 62-48. And at the end of the game, the teams' two legendary coaches, Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley, got into a heated exchange on the sideline.

In the nightcap, UCLA beat Texas 51-44 to reach Sunday's championship game (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

Andrea Adelson, Kareem Copeland, Charlie Creme, Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel were courtside providing live updates throughout both games. Here's how Sunday's title game matchup was set.

Relive Friday's action

How South Carolina won: Ending UConn's 54-game winning streak and moving into their third national championship game in a row with a 62-48 win was all about the Gamecocks' defense. They held the Huskies to their lowest shooting percentage (31%) and point total (48) of the season. Joyce Edwards and Raven Johnson keyed that defense, drawing the primary assignments on Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd. UConn's two best players shot a combined 7-of-31. UConn was 11-of-44 from the field, with eight turnovers on 53 plays in which Edwards was the final defender on Strong.

South Carolina was led offensively by senior Ta'Niya Latson, who had her first double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and freshman Agot Makeer, who scored 14 points. Makeer has scored in double figures in all five NCAA tournament games after just three games with 10 or more points during the regular season. Edwards also had 11 points and eight rebounds. In the process, she set the South Carolina record for most points in a season with 760.

How the Gamecocks can win Sunday's NCAA title game: Yes, UConn uncharacteristically missed some open shots, especially in the first half, but this kind of defense can win a national championship. South Carolina will have to produce more on offense, though. The Gamecocks' 37.5% shooting was their third worst of the season. An 18-6 free throw advantage and outrebounding the Huskies 47-32 helped mitigate poor shooting nights by everyone other than Makeer (5-of-9). -- Charlie Creme

Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter weigh in on the heated exchange between Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley at the end of South Carolina’s win over UConn.

Charlie Creme: South Carolina's best teams under Dawn Staley have been recognized for their defense, but none of them might compare to what this squad did to the previously unbeaten Huskies on Friday night. The Gamecocks took away UConn's ability to do what it does best: move the ball, work to open space, make the extra pass for the better opportunity. Rarely did the Huskies make uncontested passes. South Carolina's ball pressure and physicality were more than the Huskies had experienced this season.

Joyce Edwards' defense on Sarah Strong triggered that effectiveness. On the 53 plays where Edwards was the final defender on Strong, UConn shot 11-of-44 from the field and committed eight turnovers -- and Strong shot 4-of-16. It was the Huskies' lowest point total and field goal percentage (31%) of the season.

The last time UConn scored fewer than 50 points was in the 2022 national championship game -- against South Carolina. This was also the Huskies' largest margin in a loss since losing to the Gamecocks by 18 on Feb. 11, 2024.

Michael Voepel: Two players who weren't on the court last year when South Carolina lost the NCAA title game to UConn played huge roles in Friday's victory against the Huskies in the national semifinals. Guard Ta'Niya Latson transferred to South Carolina after three seasons at Florida State, where she led Division I in scoring as a junior. She wanted a chance to play for a national championship, and now she has it. On Friday, Latson led the Gamecocks in scoring (16), rebounding (11) and fouls drawn (six); she converted 10-of-10 at the free throw line.

Freshman Agot Makeer was the Gamecocks' top recruit this season, No. 6 in the SportsCenter 100 rankings for the class of 2025. She averaged 7.0 points entering the Final Four but has excelled throughout this tournament, scoring in double figures in all five games. But none of them had matched her performance Friday.

When she made a 3-pointer after an offensive rebound at the end of the first quarter to tie the score, it looked like it would be her day. The 6-foot-1 guard played with a lot of assurance, finishing with 14 points, four rebounds and two assists. Another sign of how confident she felt: Entering Friday's game, Makeer had made just 14 of 64 3-pointers (21.9%). She was 2-of-2 from behind the arc vs. UConn.

South Carolina Gamecocks vs. UConn Huskies: Game Highlights

Voepel: All season, we wondered what could stop UConn, and in the national semifinals it was a combination of South Carolina's defense and the Huskies' surprising timidity on offense. If there was ever a game where Paige Bueckers' absence was notable, it was Friday. The Huskies had played well all season after losing the 2025 WNBA No. 1 draft pick and Rookie of the Year. But Friday, they needed Bueckers' calming presence, her ability to score in multiple ways and her passing. They needed her swagger.

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It looked like the Huskies were going to make a comeback when they hit three consecutive 3-pointers in the third quarter to cut South Carolina's lead to 40-39. After all, we've seen it so many times from the Huskies over the past 30 years: The rare times they might struggle, they almost always get it together. Instead, South Carolina remained the team with more poise, never letting the lead get away.

Creme: Singling out one player seems unfair, but this will be a game Azzi Fudd will think about for a long time. She missed a few open shots in the first half and never recovered. Raven Johnson harassed Fudd into 3-for-15 shooting including 2-for-9 from 3-point range; she finished with eight points, just the fourth single-digit output of the season for the first-team All-American who averaged 17.3 points. This was the same Fudd who scored 52 points in two lopsided wins over South Carolina last season, including 24 in the national championship game.

Perhaps we should have seen these UConn struggles coming. The Huskies' past three games were their three lowest-scoring games of the season. The efficiency that characterizes the program disappeared in the past week. Minus her 34-point outburst against Syracuse in the second round, Fudd averaged 9.5 points in her final NCAA tournament. One of the best shooters in the collegiate game and the probable No. 1 pick in the upcoming WNBA draft had her worst shooting slump since early last season at the wrong time.

UConn's defense helped it overcome its offensive issues in the regionals against North Carolina and Notre Dame. But the Huskies were unable to fix the core problem between Fort Worth and Phoenix. It caught up to them against South Carolina.

Geno Auriemma explains the cause of his frustration with Dawn Staley at the end of UConn's Final Four loss to South Carolina.

Kareem Copeland: As entertaining as the actual game was, the postgame fireworks will be the first thing remembered. Dawn Staley simply walked the sideline for the postgame handshake that occurs after every game. There's rarely any reason to even pay attention. But Geno Auriemma was ticked off and we were all surprised by the demonstrative way he approached Staley. Even she was caught off guard.

When Staley stormed away repeating, "I'll beat Geno's ass," you knew this wasn't your typical postgame animosity.

Staley being restrained by her staff. Auriemma's earlier in-game interview that included a rant about how Staley addressed the officials. He declared after the game that he had no regrets.

Auriemma also said that the two have nothing in common, and despite that claim, it seemed like a case of having too much in common. Multiple championships. Olympic gold medals as the head coach of Team USA. Fiery personalities. Reputations of being brutally honest. A love and passion for the game with a deep understanding of the opportunities that arise from it -- making it more than just a game.

Staley said she didn't want that moment to take away from the accomplishment of her team, and it didn't. But a fracas between two Hall of Fame coaches with multiple staffers needing to separate the pair? That's the kind of anomaly that you don't forget.

Creme: So many will remember this game for the Auriemma-Staley exchange at the end, but this was about how deflated South Carolina made the Huskies look, something that so rarely happens.

That became most apparent with just less than four minutes left when Strong missed a jumper. At that moment, it seemed like the game would be over if UConn did not get a stop on that possession. Sure enough, the Huskies forced a Latson miss -- but Madina Okot tipped in the putback. The Gamecocks' lead grew back to eight and the Huskies' body language turned to resignation. It was another defensive rebound they couldn't get, another play they didn't make.

The coaches' clash might have been a byproduct of how South Carolina simply took that game away from a team that hadn't lost in 14 months. Frustrations from a highly intense, physical game boiled over.

Voepel: It wasn't as much one moment as the atmosphere of this game, where despite UConn being the favorite as the unbeaten No. 1 overall seed, South Carolina played like the more confident team.

Auriemma and Staley have lost before in national semifinal games with undefeated teams. In 2023, South Carolina was 36-0 but fell 77-73 to Iowa, led by Caitlin Clark's 41 points and eight assists. Staley talked later about how crushing that was, but the Gamecocks came back in 2024 and beat Iowa in the national championship game.

It happened to Auriemma's Huskies two other times before Friday. UConn was 36-0 entering the