South Carolina women’s team claims NCAA title
Fred Jeter | 4/7/2022, 11 p.m.
The University of South Carolina dominated the backboards and the scoreboard en route to its second NCAA women’s basketball crown last Sunday.
Coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks defeated the University of Connecticut 64-49 while out-rebounding the Huskies in Minneapolis.
“We weren’t going to be denied,” Coach Staley told the media.
Destanni Henderson had a career-high 26 points and 6-foot-5 Aliyah Boston had 11 points, 16 rebounds and dominated defensively inside.
Boston, the National Player of the Year and Final Four Most Outstanding Player, hails from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
South Carolina finished 35-2, with its only losses to Kentucky on March 6 and Missouri on Dec. 30. The team was never seriously threatened in its six NCAA Tournament games.
Coach Staley, a former University of Virginia All-American (1988-1992), is 366-105 at the school in Columbia, S.C., since taking over in 2008. Her first NCAA title came in 2017.
South Carolina becomes the eighth school to win multiple NCAA championships. The University of Connecticut leads with 11.
UConn’s standouts included Azzi Fudd from Arlington and Olivia Nelson-Ododa, the sister of former University of Richmond star Alonzo Nelson-Ododa.
