Sports Analysis
The University of Connecticut Huskies dominated the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, handing them an 87-58 loss at home in Colonial Life Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. This loss ended South Carolina’s 71 home game winning streak. The defending national champions have not looked so hot this year in comparison to their undefeated 2023-2024 season last year.
The game was the third most televised women’s college basketball game of all time on ESPN and was played in a sold-out arena. At its peak, viewership reached 2.2 million people, but the game was followed by a matchup between the Louisiana State University Tigers and the University of Texas Longhorns, where peak viewership reached 2.3 million.
UConn has been on a winning streak lately and is currently undefeated in conference play. They sit on top of the Big East conference with a 15-0 record and a 25-3 overall record.
South Carolina’s season has not gone as well, as multiple winning streaks of theirs have been broken throughout the season.
South Carolina coach and five-time Women’s National Basketball Association all-star Dawn Staley said, “I feel really bad for our fans… they packed the house, they did their part and we just had a really embarrassing performance… we got to get things back on track.”
South Carolina beat UConn in the 2022 NCAA championship 64-49. The loss is still fresh to UConn, making last week’s win even more memorable. UConn also beat Caitlin Clark and the University of Iowa 87-75, earning last year’s NCAA championship.
The Huskies then had a quick turnaround, defeating Seton Hall on Feb. 19 in South Orange, New Jersey.
This marks another conference win for UConn and another milestone for UConn guard Bueckers. Bueckers scored her 2,158th point, passing WNBA veteran and UConn Alumnus Diana Taurasi on their all-time scoring list. Bueckers now sits at ninth place, knocking Taurasi to tenth.
Bueckers has three more regular season games to keep climbing up the list and is expected to reach fifth place by the end of this season. Only a month earlier, Bueckers became the quickest player to reach 2,000 points, which she achieved after 102 games. WNBA star Maya Moore held this title prior with 108 games.
Bueckers isn’t the Huskies only star. After battling knee injuries since high school, Fudd is finally playing like fans have been hoping for. Due to injuries, Fudd missed 11 games her first season, 22 games her second season and almost her entire junior season after tearing her ACL early that November. This season, Fudd returned to the game on Nov. 20, 373 days after her last game. Since then, she’s been growing into one of the best players on the team, reaching a career high of 34 points in UConn’s game against St. John on Feb. 12.
“Confidence is obviously through the roof right now…I feel like I can’t miss, even though I’m mad I missed my last two,” Fudd said In the post-game press conference.
Fudd was also the leading scorer of UConn’s game with South Carolina with 28 points. For her incredible performances, she won three big weekly honors: Big East Player of the Week, USBWA Women’s National Player of the Week and Naismith Women’s College Player of the Week.
