The 2025 NCAA Division I women’s basketball national championship will be a revenge game.
And you can pick your preferred flavor of revenge. It is a rematch of the 2022 national championship game, when South Carolina captured the program’s second national title over UConn, 64-49. Or, it’s a rematch of the Feb. 16 game in Columbia, when the Huskies snapped the Gamecocks’ 71-game home winning streak in dominant fashion, 87-58.
For our purposes here, we’ll emphasize the latter scenario in preparation for Sunday afternoon’s championship showdown (3 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN) between the No. 1-seed South Carolina Gamecocks and No. 2-seed UConn Huskies, focusing on what the Gamecocks must do not only to avenge their streak-snapping loss but also to pull off a Husky-esque feat of winning a back-to-back and third-in-four-seasons national championship.
Here’s a look at how the Gamecocks stack up against the Huskies on both sides on ball on Sunday:
Defense: Solving the Paige problem
When UConn invaded Colonial Life Arena in February and stomped out South Carolina’s home winning streak, Paige Bueckers scored 12 points on 12 shot attempts, a 3-for-12 shooting performance well below her high-efficiency standard. Yet, she was the best player on the floor, the engine who…
