Sports
Hopkins’ Bueckers, UConn Fall To South Carolina In NCAA Final
University of Connecticut sophomore Paige Bueckers had the chance to win a national title on her homecoming to Minnesota.
MINNESOTA — Former Hopkins High School star Paige Bueckers played a major role in getting the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team to the NCAA Final Four in Minneapolis.
But her dream of winning a national title on her homecoming to Minnesota fell short Sunday night as the Huskies lost 64-49 to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks in the final game of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Bueckers scored 14 points and added six rebounds and two assists to lead UConn’s offense — despite only taking one shot in the first quarter — but the Gamecocks surged to the national title thanks to Destanni Henderson’s career-high 26 points, while Aliyah Boston added 11 points and 16 rebounds, according to statistics from ESPN.
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Bueckers said after the game that South Carolina is a "great team" that "had a great game," Yahoo! Sports reported.
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“Now we know how to get here and how hard it is and how hard we have to work all throughout the season and how much we have to overcome,” she said, according to the report.
UConn made its 14th straight Final Four appearance over the weekend at Target Center in Minneapolis.
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Bueckers, a sophomore guard, fueled the Huskies' return to the Final Four, scoring 27 points March 28 against North Carolina State in the Elite Eight round.
She then scored 14 points as UConn upset Stanford 63-58 in the Final Four round to set up her shot at glory Sunday night.
ESPN ranked Bueckers as the No. 1 college basketball recruit in 2020 during her senior year at Hopkins High School.
She underwent major knee surgery in December to repair an anterior tibial plateau fracture and a tear in her lateral meniscus, the Star Tribune reported.
She missed almost 20 games before returning to lead UConn in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
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