TAMPA, FLORIDA – APRIL 4: Paige Bueckers #5 of the UConn Huskies prepares to take a free throw against the UCLA Bruins during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal game at Amalie Arena on April 4, 2025 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

UConn women’s basketball won its Final Four matchup against the UCLA Bruins on Friday with a 34-point victory, winning 85-51.

After defeating the No. 1 seeded team, Paige Bueckers addressed her teammates in a postgame speech in UConn’s locker room to prepare them for their final game of the season.

Article continues below this ad

“I still think we got another level to tap into,” the UConn guard told her teammates in a video clip of her speech. “That’s what we save it for, and we don’t need any extra incentive.”

Bueckers also told her teammates that the games they won “earlier in the season means nothing” now.

“It’s zero zero. The record’s zero zero, and we’re both trying to go 1-0,” she said in the video.

Bueckers advised her teammates to get some rest and recover ahead of their game on Sunday afternoon.

Article continues below this ad

“We have 40 minutes to give everything we have in our entire souls and our bodies,” Bueckers told her fellow Huskies.

The UConn women’s basketball team is set to play against the University of South Carolina on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Tampa, Florida. South Carolina defeated Texas on Friday in a 74-57 game. 

South Carolina’s Gamecocks are looking to become the first repeat champion in NCAA Division I women’s basketball since UConn’s grand slam from 2013 through 2016. UConn, 11-1 in national finals under coach Geno Auriemma, is looking to extend its peerless number of championships to 12. Both teams enter at 35-3.

Article continues below this ad

The 2025 NCAA women’s basketball championship game will be aired on ABC at 3 p.m. Sunday.

This story contains prior reporting by Bryant Carpenter.

April 5, 2025