Earlier this season, UConn dominated South Carolina for an 87-58 in Columbia. It was complete domination.

The 29-point margin of victory was South Carolina’s largest deficit of the season. That was also the margin of victory (77-48) when the teams met in 2008, Dawn Staley’s first season at South Carolina.

Why should round two be different? With South Carolina, it’s always about defense. 

In February, South Carolina failed to adapt to what UConn wanted to do on offense. The Huskies wanted to push tempo and space the floor to get three-pointers early in the shot clock. They shot 13-28 (46.4%) for the game. 

UConn, not noted as a strong rebounding team, also outrebounded South Carolina 48-29.

“We don’t want to think that whatever we did in the past, good or bad, will help us tomorrow,” Paige Bueckers said on Saturday. “But obviously using the experience in what we learned from those experiences, I think I’ve always talked about and we’ve talked about as a team is our defense. We want to continue to do that, make them as uncomfortable as we can, limit their 3s, limit what they do inside the paint and try to disrupt everything they do offensively. And just be aggressive on both sides of the ball. Look to get threes, but look to score in the paint, get paint touches, which leads to stuff on the outside, and just play with energy and a passion and leave everything out on the floor.”

It always comes back to defense. It has for all three of South Carolina’s national championships and the five straight Final Fours.

“I think a staple for us has been our ability to defend because the offense will sometimes go off on a journey on its own,” Staley said. “And our mainstay has been our ability to defend and come up with schemes that will help us through those stretches where we’ve got a lull from an offensive standpoint. I think it’s great. I mean, the three games in between yesterday and the first game, people thought we were just dead. The way we were playing, we can’t win a national championship; we’re not going to make it to a national championship game. And it’s something to say about players who have a belief in each other. I hope it gives hope to the other programs that it makes it easier when you’ve got a go-to player for sure. But it’s not an impossible thing to do if you don’t. You just have to lean on each other a lot more because you don’t have that go-to player.”

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By contrast, UConn has three of those players. Paige Bueckers was the national player of the year as a freshman. She’s dealt with injuries throughout her career but is destined – win or lose Sunday – to go down as one of the all-time great Huskies.

And Bueckers might not even be the most dangerous player on the team.

Azzi Fudd has also had an injury-plagued career. She is finally healthy and has caught fire late in the season. Fudd had 28 points on 6-10 shooting from three in the first game against South Carolina. Against UCLA, Fudd has 19 points on 7-12 shooting.

Best of all might be Sarah Strong. Strong had 16 points and 13 rebounds in the first game and a monster 22 points and eight rebounds, going 4-6 from three, against UCLA.

“Sarah, how do I say this? She might be, in the next three years, she might be the best player to come out of UConn,” Staley said. “And those are strong words. I know (Breanna Stewart) won four (championships). But what she’s able to do – stay calm, the IQ is off the charts, the skill set off the charts. Big play after big play after big play. Such a great complement to an already skilled UConn team. I think she’s the piece that puts it all together. She makes it all work.”

South Carolina will have something cooked up for Strong, Fudd, and Bueckers. In 2022, Staley assigned Destanni Henderson to frustrate Bueckers with her quickness, a somewhat surprising move (although South Carolina had given it a test drive earlier in the season). 

Bree Hall, who is South Carolina’s best perimeter defender and leader of the Seat Belt Gang, teased something new when asked about the defense on Saturday.

“I’m not going to tell what we’re going to do,” Hall said. “That was a trick question. But, I mean, we’re just going to have to stay disciplined to the game plan. I don’t want to say. I’m sorry.”