2026 UConn vs. South Carolina Women's Final Four Preview: How to Watch, Top Players in Championship Rematch!

Gamecocks and Huskies will once again do elite battle in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament’s Final Four.

The extraordinary has become the ordinary on the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament bracket, albeit in the most exhilarating way possible in the Final Four stanzas.

(Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

For the third time in the last five seasons, the UConn Huskies and South Carolina Gamecocks will do battle in the April portions of the tournament. The latest lands on Friday night in Phoenix, nearly one year after they previously squared off in the national title game.

Defending champion UConn is closing in on a fateful 40, seeking to become the 11th undefeated national victor at the Division I level and its 13th national title overall. This latest addition to this perfect streak is a 70-52 drubbing of another lasting rival, Notre Dame, in the Elite Eight round on Sunday to close out the first Fort Worth region. Sarah Strong led all Huskies with 21 points while Blanca Quiñónez continued her torrid tournament pace with 20 points and eight rebounds off the bench.

Geno Auriemma has been to the title game with UConn 12 times

His one loss was to Dawn Staley’s South Carolina pic.twitter.com/vSq2ArwfSm

— espnW (@espnW) April 5, 2025

The Huskies are back in the Final Four for the 17th time in the past 18 tournaments and are looking for their first streak of national titles since sweeping a class between 2013 and 2016. The victims in their latest tour of perfection were UTSA, Syracuse, and North Carolina before they took out the Irish’s luck, posting an average margin of victory of over 32 in that span.

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Final Four Preview: UConn Huskies vs. South Carolina Gamecocks

Standing in their way is a familiar foe in the Gamecocks, who recovered well from a loss to fellow Final Four participant Texas in the SEC Tournament. Joyce Edwards posted a 24-point, 12-rebound double-double while Agot Makeer put in 18 tallies off the bench, as their efforts allowed South Carolina to post a 78-52 decision in the Sacramento 4 regional final. They managed to neutralize the upset-minded Horned Frogs in the very end, with their clutch antics headlining an 18-point advantage in the fourth quarter.

South Carolina has been a Final Four mainstay since the canceled postseasons of 2020, as they’re back in the national semifinal for the sixth consecutive season. The Gamecocks have won three national titles since 2017, the last being a perfect output of their own in 2023-24. South Carolina was equally dominant in its own tournament, defeating Southern, Southern California, Oklahoma, and TCU by an average margin of over 40 points.

UConn leads this series by a 9-5 tally since 2015, and this will be the fourth time they meet on the bracket in that span. South Carolina is responsible for the lone loss that UConn has endured in the national title game, as Aliyah Boston helped break the norm in 2022. The Huskies restored Storrs’ sanity last spring, capping off the Paige Bueckers era in style with an 82-59 triumph in Tampa. Though the two sides have kept up the pleasantries in recent regular seasons, they did not stage a winter match this time around.

Who: (1) UConn Huskies (38-0, 20-0 Big East) vs. (1) South Carolina Gamecocks (35-3, 15-1 SEC)
What: NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament National Semifinal/Final Four
Where: Mortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix, AZ
When: Saturday, 8:49 p.m. ET, TBS/TruTV/HBO Max
Wager: UCONN -6.5 (O/U 136.5)

UConn freshman Blanca Quiñonez at the half

13 PTS
5-6 FG pic.twitter.com/qKrq6aFTo4

— espnW (@espnW) December 2, 2025

Husky to Watch: Blanca Quiñónez

Amidst their championship triumphs, UConn sometimes uses the latter stages of the NCAA Tournament as the basketball equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s post-credit scene: just when you think you know what’s coming and just when you think you’ve seen it all, a new threat emerges with promises of being a problem in the future. Last year, it was Strong, who took center stage this time around after her fantastic freshman year was partly overshadowed by the final hours of the Bueckers/Azzi Fudd collaboration.

Quiñonez seems poised to be a problem this time around; well-used to national stages, the Ecuador-born forward stole the show as the Big East’s top rookie and sixth woman but has broken out in the tournament to the tune of 17.8 points and 4.3 rebounds averages while shooting over 47 percent from deep and playing sterling defense. While the Huskies are far from above dipping into the transfer portal, their prowess in old-fashioned recruiting continues to keep the ball rolling.

Ta’Niya Latson’s 28 points lead the way as South Carolina advances to the Elite Eight!#MarchMadness x ESPN pic.twitter.com/mRjcC3uumb

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 29, 2026

Gamecock to Watch: Ta’Niya Latson

Many an accomplished prospect from elsewhere has thrown herself into the Dawn Staley experience, eager to contribute to a relentless championship program. Ta’Niya Latson, formerly of Florida State, is the latest, and her scoring prowess has helped keep South Carolina’s backcourt offensive forces in full blast next to Raven Johnson and Tessa Johnson.

When the Gamecocks have needed her, Latson has come through and then some: she has reached double-figures in scoring in all but three of South Carolina’s games against ranked competition, and she’s relatively fresh off a 28-point effort in the Sweet 16 shellacking of Oklahoma.

Latson had only three against the Horned Frogs, but her value remains imperative: getting through the Huskies impenetrable defense feels like the best way to find a victory that feels impossible for few beyond Staley’s group, and the ex-Seminole’s shooting prowess will have to be at the top of its game.

They Said It

“Obviously, this is a different South Carolina team than the one we played last year … They have added some really key pieces. I think they’re a much better team than they were last year. Our two wins against them last year don’t really mean anything going into tomorrow … (They’re) really hard to prepare for. They’ve shot the ball exceptionally well this year. They’ve added the size that is hard to match up with. Defensively, we have our challenges with them.”—UConn head coach Geno Auriemma (h/t Tia Reed, Mississippi Clarion Ledger)

“Most people are counting us out. I just feel like everything I’ve seen on social media, which is not something I should be looking at, everybody has picked us to lose this game. They’re undefeated, but we’re a great team. They’re a great team, too. It’s going to be a good matchup, and it’s not gonna be an easy game. … I would definitely pick our team over any other team that we’re playing against.”—South Carolina forward Maryam Dauda (h/t Michael Sauls, The State)

Prediction

UConn and South Carolina have turned these near-annual meetings into matchups of unstoppable forces and immovable objects. This one might even be closer than they regularly keep it, considering they didn’t meet in the lead-up. There’s no denying that UConn will face its toughest tests, no matter who they run into in their desert duels, and Dawn Staley‘s flock certainly knows a thing or two about distracting the Huskies. However, UConn’s prior prowess, not to mention the idea of sending off Fudd in literally perfect fashion, feels far too dangerous to bet against.