As has been the case all season, the Huskies’ elite trio of Azzi Fudd, Sarah Strong and Paige Bueckers led the way. All three made the all-tournament team, and Fudd, who had 24 points to lead UConn to Sunday’s 82-59 rout of South Carolina, was named the most outstanding player.

“Just to have fun with all of them, it’s exactly what I wanted. Shots will fall. Shots won’t fall, but I knew I was going to give it my all, leave everything on the floor for that 40 minutes,” Fudd said.

Strong, a freshman, had 24 points and 15 rebounds. Bueckers, the expected No. 1 pick in the April 14 WNBA Draft, had 17 points and six rebounds. She picked her spots offensively while Strong and Fudd took over when the team needed them the most.

Still, Bueckers finished the tournament with 153 points — the second-most points in an NCAA Tournament by a UConn player — and finished her career third all time on the UConn scoring list.

South Carolina tried to slow down Bueckers, throwing multiple defenders at her at times, and she shot just 5-for-14 from the field. The Gamecocks also held UConn to 4-for-17 on shots from deep. But South Carolina, which was led by Tessa Johnson and Joyce Edwards with 10 points each, couldn’t find enough offense to keep up with a Huskies team that scored 26 points in a decisive third quarter.

With 1:32 left in the game, Bueckers checked out for the final time, hugged coach Geno Auriemma and cried as they were on the verge of the title. It was their last game together, but they went out the way they hoped when Bueckers committed to Auriemma in 2019.

“He told me he loved me. And I told him I hated him,” Bueckers said. “We both love each other even though we hate each other some days.”

It is UConn’s 12th national championship, which not only adds to the Huskies’ record for the most of any women’s program in NCAA history but also breaks a tie with the UCLA men’s program, which won 10 of its 11 championships under legendary coach John Wooden.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma hugs star Paige Bueckers in the fourth quarter of their win over South Carolina on Sunday in Tampa, Fla. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

Bueckers goes out on top, a fitting end to her adversity-filled career

Bueckers came to UConn hoping to win a national title, but her career didn’t go as planned. She dealt with recovery from an ACL injury and some NCAA Tournament heartbreak, including losing in the final seconds in last year’s Final Four to Iowa.

“To be shaped, to be the person that I am today and the team we are today and obviously you feel like on the other side of a really hard time, is a really big blessing,” Bueckers said. “And we stuck to it and kept the faith and to be rewarded with something like this, you can’t really even put it into words.”

This year, though, Bueckers seemed destined to finish her run with a national championship. She scored 34 points in the second round, 40 in the Sweet 16 and 31 in the Elite Eight to get UConn to Tampa.

Bueckers didn’t have to do all of the scoring, especially with how dominant Strong and Fudd were in the Final Four, but her presence and efficiency were on full display.

She scored 33 points in the Final Four, with five assists and just one turnover.

As good as Bueckers is on the court, her impact off the floor is hard to quantify, both for UConn and for women’s basketball as a whole. She’s been one of the faces of women’s college basketball since she stepped onto campus in Storrs, Conn., and will now leave at the top of the game.

Finishing her career with the net around her neck in her postgame news conference was fitting.

Lack of scoring costs Gamecocks

The Gamecocks were not overmatched early on against UConn. In fact, South Carolina trailed by just three points with 5:59 left in the second quarter.

The problem was the lack of consistent offense. The Gamecocks shot just 34 percent from the field, and their 11 turnovers led to 14 UConn points.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t take care of the basketball,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “We took a couple of bad shots. We didn’t make layups, and they make you pay.”

After cutting the lead to three points in the second quarter, South Carolina went nearly five minutes without scoring and fell behind by eight. From there, UConn took over. South Carolina trailed by 10 to start the third quarter and was never able to score enough to cut into the lead, as UConn pushed its lead up over 20 points and beyond.

South Carolina, which was playing in its fifth straight Final Four, will be back. But it will need to add some scoring this offseason to get back on top.

Are Fudd and Strong the next faces of the sport?

With Bueckers leaving for the WNBA and USC’s JuJu Watkins likely missing much of next season after her ACL injury, the sport could be a little short on star power next season.

Fudd and Strong showed they could be ready to fill the void.

Fudd scored 43 points in the Final Four alone but showed that she is more than just an offensive weapon, adding six steals as well.

Strong, the freshman of the year this season, exceeded even her own expectations in the postseason. She scored 114 points in the NCAA Tournament, setting a new freshman record for points. She added 23 rebounds and four blocks in the Final Four games.

South Carolina says goodbye to elite senior class

Staley has built South Carolina into a national power.

This was the Gamecocks’ fifth straight Final Four and third national title game appearance in four years. The senior class, including Bree Hall, Sania Feagin and Sakima Walker, were part of four straight Final Four trips and two national titles. Guard Te-hina Paopao was a transfer but played in the last two, as well.

Their impact on the program goes beyond the results of Sunday’s game, which is why Hall said she wasn’t as upset after the game as some people might’ve thought.

“This is something that people dream of having, of experiencing,” Hall said. “So I just gotta keep moving on. It is what it is. Like I said, a lot of people dream of being in a position like this.”

Staley’s job will be to replace a class that finished with 144 wins in four seasons. Although that ranks behind the UConn class of 2012-16, which won 151 games and four national championships, it’s still impressive.

South Carolina will bring back major pieces of this year’s team, including Edwards, Johnson, Milaysia Fulwiley, Chloe Kitts and more, but Staley wanted to give her senior class their praise one more time.

“There’s the experience that they receive every home game. Most of them are sellouts,” Staley said. “Most of them are 16-, 17,000 people playing — I mean, they’re playing in front of — everywhere we go, on the road, we receive so much love and support from even the visitors’ fans. So it was them that built this.”