COLUMBIA, S.C. — For the first eight years of the series between UConn and South Carolina women’s basketball, the Gamecocks were an afterthought for the Huskies to demolish en route to yet another Final Four.
In the seminal meeting in 2007, the season before coach Dawn Staley was hired, UConn hosted the Gamecocks for a 97-39 thrashing in Storrs. The Huskies’ return trip to Columbia in 2008 was a 29-point blowout, and they didn’t see Staley’s Gamecocks again until 2015. The teams have played annually since in either the regular season or NCAA Tournament — often both — but UConn had never beaten South Carolina by less than 12 points until suffering its first loss in series history in 2020.
Since that first Gamecocks win, they have won four of the past five meetings including the 2022 NCAA championship game. UConn’s 81-77 loss to South Carolina at the XL Center in 2023 was its third straight loss and first at home in series history. The No. 11 Huskies (20-4) enter this year’s matchup at Colonial Life Arena as a clear underdog to No. 1 South Carolina (22-0), undefeated in the regular season for the second year in a row.
“In the beginning we’d go down there and blow them out, so it wasn’t a rivalry,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said after a win over Seton Hall on Wednesday. “Then it became one … and you start to appreciate that when you had the best team, you could go down there — you could go anywhere, really — and play a team of that magnitude and know you’re gonna win. Then there’s some years when you know it’s going to be a titanic struggle.”
UConn’s reputation means the matchup will always matter for top-ranked teams, but a rash of season-ending injuries will make it difficult for the Huskies to compete for 40 minutes against South Carolina’s depth. None of the Gamecocks’ starters average more than 27 minutes per game, and they have the deepest bench in the country averaging 34.2 points per game from the reserves.
“You’re always playing a tradition of their program, and they’re always in striking distance of winning any basketball game that they play,” Staley said Friday. “It’s the fabric of who they are as the best program in this century, to be quite honest with you … Through the injuries, we’re not going to take them lightly because they’ve still got a team of All-Americans.”
With just nine healthy players and seven in the regular rotation, UConn’s entire starting five averages more than 28 minutes per game with seniors Nika Muhl and Aaliyah Edwards above 30. But there’s hope for the Huskies: South Carolina will be without two members of its post rotation on Sunday. Star center Kamilla Cardoso is in Belgium competing in the Olympic qualifying tournament with Team Brazil, and freshman Sahnya Jah was announced Wednesday as out indefinitely due to “conduct detrimental to the team.”
Jah is a depth piece for South Carolina averaging just nine minutes per game, but Cardoso’s absence could be game-changing for UConn. The Huskies are desperately undersized, starting a four-guard lineup with the 6-foot-3 Edwards as the only viable option at center.
Removing the 6-7 Cardoso from the paint puts heavy pressure on South Carolina’s guards, particularly whoever is dealing with the Paige Bueckers assignment. Despite a recent slump from beyond the arc, Bueckers is one of just three guards in the country shooting above 54% from the field and ranks 10th in 3-point percentage making 44.86%. If any UConn player can take over a game and render the underdog label premature, it’s Bueckers.
“There’s no fat to Paige’s game. It’s all lean,” Staley said. “Everything that she does has a purpose. There’s no wasted movements out there on the floor. So if you have some slippage defensively, she’s gonna make you pay with her shot. She’s gonna make you pay with her vision. She’s gonna make you pay with rebounding the basketball. She’s that kind of player.”
Edwards will certainly be more comfortable operating without Cardoso’s presence beside her, but the Gamecocks’ current starting forwards are only a downgrade in height. Ashlyn Watkins ranks No. 10 in the country in blocks per game and has averaged 11.3 points and 10 rebounds over her last four games. Both Watkins and starting forward Chloe Kitts shoot above 53% from the field, and they average a combined 13.5 rebounds per game.
“I think we know what we’re up against,” Auriemma said. “We know who they are and what they can do and what they’ve done. And I know our guys are excited to go down and play.”
How to watch
Site: Colonial Life Arena; Columbia, South Carolina
Time: 2 p.m., Sunday
Series: UConn leads, 9-4
Last meeting: South Carolina, 81-77; Feb. 5, 2023 in Hartford
TV: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: UConn Sports Network on Fox Sports 97.9
