The desert heat rose last night as South Carolina entered Phoenix’s Mortgage Matchup Center to face UConn – the team that handed them an L in the 2025 March Madness Final. With revenge on their minds, the underdogs thrashed the Huskies out in a 62-48 lopsided win. But before Dawn Staley could even celebrate her third win in this decade alone, that heat got to the opponent head coach, Geno Auriemma.

While the first defeat of the entire season hurt him, Auriemma couldn’t get over the fact that his star player, Sarah Strong, had to change her jersey mid game after it got torn. But while the winningest coach in the NCAA women’s basketball blamed the Gamecocks, Strong has clarified what really happened to her jersey.

“It was an accident,” Strong said in the press conference. “Missed my shot, and ripped it by accident.”

Auriemma sitting right by her side, however, knew another story. The play occurred at the end of the third quarter when Strong failed to score while being heavily contested. But as she was moving on the sidelines, she mistakenly tore her jersey from the front. With the cameras not capturing it at the moment, everyone thought it was a player from the opposing team.

All the cameras showed was Strong quickly changing her jersey. She also had to switch it from No. 21 to No. 55 for the remainder of the game. Broadcasts also showed that there’s no substantial evidence of any Gamecocks defender tearing up Strong’s jersey while defending. But Auriemma had already chosen sides even before the team headed for the press conference.

Moments after the final buzzer, the UConn head coach blamed the Gamecocks’ physical defenders and the referee’s apparent partiality towards them.

“I’ve been coaching a long time. I’ve never had a kid have to change their jersey because somebody ripped it and the official said, ‘I didn’t see it,” Auriemma said of the incident. “Their coach (Dawn Staley) rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referee some names you don’t want to hear.

“And now we get 6-0, and I’ve got a kid with a ripped jersey, and they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ Come on, man, this is for the national championship.”

Although it was an emotional and physical game from the get-go, the sophomore forward was still able to put up a double-double with team-high 12 points and 12 rebounds. While her shooting was cold in the game with just 4-of-16 shots from the field, she still performed the best out of the group in a game they knew would be physical and important to reach the Finals for a consecutive year. And while Auriemma might have blamed the officiating for their state in the game, Strong knew better.

Sarah Strong refuses to shift the blame

Back in 2024, when Caitlin Clark’s Iowa defeated the Huskies, everyone blamed the one call against UConn that changed the fate. However, their former guard Paige Bueckers knew it was their fault at the end of the day for not scoring good enough. Strong did not forget that lesson.

UConn didn’t seem to be their true selves in the game, and whatever could have gone wrong for them, did. So, speaking at the press conference after the game, Sarah Strong didn’t hesitate to point out that the entire team is at fault for this loss, not just a single player.

“We know what they were trying to do,” Strong said. “They were aggressive; they did whatever they wanted to do.  We’ve played them before, we know the players. We know everything about them, that’s on us.”

The box score clearly reflects the entire story for UConn. The Huskies shot poorly throughout the game, just 31% from the field and 29% from beyond the arc. The Huskies also committed 17 fouls in the game, which is an exceedingly high number against a team like South Carolina. The fairness of these calls is a debate for another day, though.

Strong’s partner-in-crime, Azzi Fudd, had a rare off-day in the worst possible scenario for UConn. The senior scored just 8 points in her 39 minutes and missed 12 shots from the field. Ashlynn Shade supported Strong with 10 points in the game. But it was too little too late.

As for Dawn Staley’s South Carolina, they peaked at the right moment. After all, it would take a heck of a defensive job to stop the UConn Huskies from scoring just 48 points in the game. The Gamecocks capitalized perfectly on the opportunities that UConn presented to them, especially from the free-throw line, where Staley’s team converted 18 of 22.

The Huskies’ inconsistencies came back to haunt them at the end of a tightrope game, which left the players like Fudd and Strong controlling their emotions and head coach Geno Auriemma going all-out aggressive at the refs from the sidelines and after the game.