UCLA: 2026 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball National Champions

 

PHOENIX – The No. 1-seed UCLA women's basketball team defeated No. 1-seed South Carolina, 79-51, to win its first-ever NCAA Championship on Sunday afternoon before a capacity crowd at Mortgage Matchup Center.

 

UConn: 2024-25 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Champions

 

TAMPA, Fla. -- It has been a nine-year wait for UConn to get its 12th national championship. But in a lot of ways, it came at exactly the right time.

The No. 2-seeded Huskies finished their run through three No. 1 seeds, culminating in an 82-59 victory over South Carolina in the NCAA final on Sunday to claim a title that perhaps means a little more because of the journey the program and senior star Paige Bueckers has been on to get it.

After winning four championships in a row from 2013 to 2016 behind superstar Breanna Stewart, the Huskies hit a series of roadblocks with tough losses and injury heartbreaks.

But Sunday, the Huskies moved to the top of the women's basketball world again, sending Bueckers -- who is expected to be the WNBA's No. 1 draft pick on April 14 -- out with her first national championship.

A tearful Bueckers buried her face in coach Geno Auriemma's shoulder as they hugged on the sideline when she exited the game with just over a minute left, mission at last accomplished.

With guards Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, who missed most of last season with a knee injury, healthy at the same time, and the top freshman in the nation in forward Sarah Strong, UConn looked like so many of its championship teams of old. Not just the best team, but the team that also played the best.

Fudd and Strong both finished with 24 points, and Bueckers had 17. Freshman Joyce Edwards and sophomore Tessa Johnson led South Carolina with 10 points each as the Gamecocks fell short of repeating as national champions and finished 35-4.

UConn now has 12 wins in the Final Four by 20 or more points. All other teams in Division I women's history have 11 combined.

Bueckers was asked before Sunday's game how she would like to be remembered at UConn.

"As a great teammate, a great leader. I think those are the two most important things to me, just being somebody that people love to play with, make their teammates better, wears a UConn jersey with pride," she said.

Now, she also will be remembered as a national champion. Admittedly, there were points in her career where it didn't seem that would happen. UConn's disappointments go back, in fact, to the end of their 111-game winning streak at the Final Four in Dallas in 2017. The Huskies were defeated on a buzzer-beater in overtime in the national semifinals by Mississippi State.

Then in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2024, the Huskies also lost in the national semifinals. They fell in the 2022 national championship game to South Carolina, and missed the 2023 Final Four -- the only time since an Elite Eight loss in 2007 that the Huskies have not made the season's final weekend. Bueckers missed the 2022-23 season with a knee injury.

With Fudd out last season, the Huskies went down to the wire with Iowa in the national semifinals, but lost 71-69. That set up a lot of pressure on Bueckers and the Huskies to make their dreams come true this year.

UConn wasn't perfect this season, as has been the case with six former UConn championship teams. But after an 80-76 loss at Tennessee on Feb. 6, the Huskies didn't lose another game. They won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles, then dominated their way through the NCAA tournament (including wins over 1-seeds USC, UCLA and South Carolina) to finish 37-3.

Sunday, the Huskies took a 19-14 lead after a first quarter that featured a very fast pace and some intense defense inside from UConn. The Huskies set the tone by shooting 52.9% from the field in the opening period, while holding the Gamecocks to 40%. Unlike UCLA in its semifinal loss to UConn, South Carolina was working the ball into the spots it wanted, but didn't finish well.

Strong's emphatic block of a Raven Johnson layup attempt at the 9:04 mark of the second quarter sent a message, as did her play throughout her first postseason.

Strong set a record for points by a freshman in a single NCAA tournament with 114, passing Tennessee's Tamika Catchings, who had 111 in 1998. That year, incidentally, Strong's mother, Allison Feaster, led Harvard as a No. 16 seed past No. 1 Stanford in the NCAA tournament. Feaster went on to a 10-season career in the WNBA, where her daughter will be headed in a few years.

Strong is also the first player (regardless of class) to have at least 100 points, 25 assists and 10 blocks in a single NCAA tournament since blocks became an official stat in 1988.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley predicted on Saturday that over the next few years, Strong might end up as the best Huskies player of all. Which is saying a ton considering UConn boasts former players such as Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash and two of the most recent Naismith Hall of Fame inductees, Maya Moore and Sue Bird, who were honored at Sunday's game.

UConn, which entered Sunday averaging 8.7 3-pointers per game, had just one in the first half, but that one shot -- by Ashlynn Shade from the left corner with nine seconds left -- gave the Huskies some momentum going into halftime up 36-26.

The Huskies continued to control the game throughout the second half. UConn is now 91-2 when leading by double digits at halftime in the NCAA tournament. The two losses were the 2001 national semifinal (up 12 at the half), when it lost to eventual champion Notre Dame, and in the 1989 first round (up 10) against La Salle.

Auriemma was coaching in his first NCAA tournament in 1989, in his fourth season at UConn. The Huskies have now appeared in 36 NCAA tournaments and 24 Final Fours. Auriemma, who turned 71 in March, is the first coach to win a championship at age 70 or older in Division I women's or men's basketball.

He joked before the game that he thought about quitting multiple times during the season the past few years, but then would go to practice and always be drawn back in.

"I think there's a lot of people counting on me to keep doing what I'm doing at UConn -- all my team, all my staff," Auriemma said. "I think they're counting on me to keep going and keep impacting and keep doing what we do."

South Carolina: 2021-22 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball National Champions

The South Carolina Gamecocks are national champions once again. On Sunday night in Minneapolis, South Carolina held off UConn in a low-scoring game, 64-49, to claim the second title in school history. This was the first loss in a national championship game for UConn, which had been undefeated in 11 previous appearances. Aliyah Boston was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.

On the very first possession of the game, Destanni Henderson hit a 3-pointer to give South Carolina the lead, and they never let it go. It took just four minutes and 44 seconds for them to build a double-digit lead, and they were up 22-8 after the first quarter. While UConn, as expected, made a few runs here and there to hang around, they never seriously threatened to take the lead. By the final few minutes of the fourth quarter, the celebration was officially on for South Carolina.

Henderson led the way for the Gamecocks with 26 points, four assists and three steals. This was the highest-scoring game of her collegiate career, and it could not have come at a better time. Boston, the Naismith Player of the Year, finished with 11 points, 16 rebounds and two blocks. South Carolina's dominance on the offensive glass -- 21 offensive rebounds -- was a major factor in the result.

Paige Bueckers led UConn with 14 points and six rebounds. She was the only player on the Huskies to finish in double figures. 

With so much talent on this South Carolina team, it was hard at times for players not named Aliyah Boston to stand out. That was not the case on Sunday night, however, as senior guard Destanni Henderson delivered the biggest performance of her career on the biggest stage. 

Henderson drained a 3-pointer from the corner on the first possession of the game, then assisted on two more buckets over the next few minutes to help the Gamecocks build an early double-digit advantage. They would never relinquish that lead, thanks in large part to Henderson's impressive play on both ends of the floor. 

She finished with a career-high 26 points on 9 of 20 from the field, four assists and three steals. On a night where South Carolina struggled to find offense at times, Henderson was a steadying presence. She either scored or assisted on 13 of the team's 22 made field goals. On the other end, her defense was a key factor in limiting UConn to just 49 points on 40.7 percent shooting. 

"My teammates trusted in me," Henderson said. "I feel like since Day One we've been putting in the hard work and waiting for this moment and tonight I just found open shots."

For her play, not just in the national championship but throughout the tournament, Henderson was named to the 2022 NCAA All-Tournament Team. 

Naismith Player of the Year Aliyah Boston had been dominant in the tournament, and was coming off a 23-point, 18-rebound performance against Louisville in the Final Four. UConn, understandably, did not want that to happen again, and devoted all sorts of defensive attention to South Carolina's star. 

To that specific end, they were successful. Boston's eight field goal attempts were tied for her second fewest this season, and her 11 points were tied for her fourth fewest. It didn't matter. Boston still had a huge impact on the game, and recorded her 30th double-double on the season with 11 points, 16 rebounds, three assists and two blocks. 

And none of those stats take into account how she wore out UConn's defenders, who had to battle her on the block and on the glass all game long. Or how the attention UConn paid to her opened things up for other players like Henderson. Or how her defensive presence helped limit UConn to one of its worst offensive games all season. 

It feels amazing," Boston said. "Honestly, I've been thinking of this since last season because everyone had a picture of me crying at the end of the Final Four and they put it everywhere. But today we're national champions and... happy tears. Happy tears. If you guys want a smile, here you go. And we're national champions."

In addition to being named to the 2022 NCAA All-Tournament Team, Boston was also named Final Four Most Outstanding Player. She is the first South Carolina player to earn that honor since A'ja Wilson in 2017. 

Throughout the tournament, so much had been made about UConn's historic accomplishments -- 28 consecutive Sweet 16s, 14 consecutive Final Fours, a record 11 national championships, an undefeated record in national championship games. On Sunday night, it was Dawn Staley and South Carolina's turn to take the spotlight and make some history of their own. 

Here are just a few of the feats that Staley and Co. accomplished:

South Carolina became the eighth program to win multiple national championships

Dawn Staley became the first black head coach in Division I history (men or women) to win multiple national championships

South Carolina became the 12th program to go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 ranked team and win the national championship

South Carolina became the first team to defeat UConn in a national championship game

At the beginning of the season, Staley signed a historic contract extension worth $22.4 million over seven years. South Carolina's performance on Sunday, and over the past six months, showed she's worth every penny, if not more. She has firmly established herself as one of the best coaches in the country, and just might be building a dynasty of her own in Columbia. 

With number of key players from this team, including Boston, coming back next season, the Gamecocks will be favorites to win it all again. There's a long way to go until then, of course, but if South Carolina will have a real chance to become the first team since UConn (2013-2016) to repeat as champions. 

Stanford: 2021 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball National Champions

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Tara VanDerveer hugged each of her Stanford players as they climbed the ladder to cut down a piece of the net.

It took 29 years, but VanDerveer and the Cardinal are NCAA women's basketball champions again.

Haley Jones scored 17 points and Stanford beat Arizona 54-53, giving the Cardinal and its Hall of Fame coach their first national championship since 1992 on Sunday night.

"Getting through all the things we got through, we're excited to win the COVID championship," VanDerveer said. "The other one was not quite as close, the last one. But we're really excited. No one knows the score, no one knows who scored, it's a national championship and I'm really excited to represent Stanford. It's a great team. We did not play a great game today, however. But if we can win, not playing as well as we need to, I'm excited."

It wasn't a masterpiece by any stretch with both teams struggling to score and missing easy layups and shots, but Stanford did just enough to pull off the win.

Stanford (31-2) built a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter before Arizona (21-6) cut it to 51-50 on star guard Aari McDonald's 3-pointer.

After a timeout, Jones answered with a three-point play with 2:24 left. That would be Stanford's last basket of the game. McDonald got the Wildcats within 54-53 with 36.6 seconds left converting three of four free throws.

"I just owe it all to my teammates, they have confidence in me when I don't have confidence in myself," said Jones, who was honored as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. "I saw they needed me to come up big and I did."

The Cardinal, after another timeout couldn't even get a shot off, giving Arizona one last chance with 6.1 seconds left, but McDonald's contested shot from the top of the key at the buzzer bounced off the rim.

"I got denied hard. I tried to turn the corner, they sent three at me. I took a tough, contested shot and it didn't fall," said McDonald, who fell near midcourt, slumped in disbelief while the Cardinal celebrated.

It's been quite a journey for VanDerveer and the Cardinal this season. The team was forced on the road for nearly 10 weeks because of the coronavirus, spending 86 days in hotels during this nomadic season.

The team didn't complain and went about their business and now have another NCAA championship. Along the way, the Hall of Fame coach earned her 1,099th career victory to pass Pat Summitt for the most all time in women's basketball history.

Now the 67-year-old coach has a third national title to go along with the ones she won in 1990 and 1992. That moved her into a tie with Baylor's Kim Mulkey for third most all time behind Geno Auriemma and Summitt.

VanDerveer had many great teams between titles, including the ones led by Candice Wiggins and the Ogwumike sisters — Nneka and Chiney, but the Cardinal just couldn't end its season with that elusive win in the title game until Sunday night.

It was the first women's basketball championship for the Pac-12 since VanDerveer and Stanford won the title in 1992. The last time a team from the conference was in the title game was 2010 when the Cardinal lost to UConn. That game was also played in the Alamodome — the site of every game in this tournament from the Sweet 16 through Sunday's championship game.

The entire NCAA Tournament was played in the San Antonio area because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NOTES:

Stanford is the nation's all-time leader in NCAA team championships (127), totaling eight more than second-place UCLA (119).

Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship during each of the last 45 seasons, dating back to the 1976-77 campaign.

Of Stanford's 127 NCAA championships, 67 have come from men's programs and 60 from women's programs.

Of Stanford's 127 NCAA championships, 35 have been won in the fall, 29 in the winter and 63 in the spring.

Stanford has won 51 NCAA championships since 2000.

Stanford won its third NCAA championship in school history. The Cardinal also captured NCAA titles in 1990 and 1992. Head coach Tara VanDerveer has guided Stanford to all three NCAA crowns.

Head coach Tara VanDerveer becomes Stanford's first female head coach to win an NCAA championship since Lele Forood (women's tennis) in 2019.

Head coach Tara VanDerveer is one of seven active Stanford head coaches to have won at least three NCAA championships, joining Lele Forood (women's tennis - 10), John Tanner (women's water polo - 7), Thom Glielmi (men's gymnastics - 3), Jeremy Gunn (men's soccer - 3), Greg Meehan (women's swimming and diving - 3) and Paul Ratcliffe (women's soccer - 3).