South Carolina and UConn meet for women’s hoops championship

MINNEAPOLIS – It’s one of the most remarkable records in sports. Geno Auriemma and his UConn Huskies are 11-0 in NCAA championship games.

The Huskies will look to continue that run when they face South Carolina for the women’s basketball title on Sunday night.

Auriemma always downplays his role in the undefeated mark saying it’s easy when you have the best players.

“I think for me the approach that’s worked the best is make sure you bring the best team,” Auriemma said. “So I would venture to say that all 11 times that we’ve won – maybe there was one time – but I don’t think we surprised anybody by winning because we had the best team. We had the best team all year. We had the best talented players. We played harder than everybody. We were just better than everybody.”

This is South Carolina’s second appearance in the title game. Dawn Staley’s squad won the championship in 2017. The Hall of Famer knows how difficult it is to win one, let alone 11.

“It’s tough. It’s tough. It’s tough, We’re 1-0, so we’re 100% too,” Staley said which drew laughter from the media. “But it’s incredible. This is our fourth time, and we only have one, so it’s incredibly tough.

“It comes down to UConn has had the most experience, so it doesn’t faze them to be where they are. Probably a little bit different with this group because they haven’t won one – any person hasn’t won one on their roster. For us, same way, haven’t won one. I think we’re going to duke it out. There’s no edge. There’s no edge.”

The Gamecocks have been the best team in the country all season, going wire-to-wire as No. 1 in the AP Poll. The two teams played back in November in a tournament in the Bahamas. South Carolina came away with a 73-57 win, outscoring the Huskies 16-3 in