Five factors that led to South Carolina's championship game victory over UConn

The center position might be old fashioned in today's basketball landscape, but it promised to be a key matchup to watch with South Carolina's Aliyah Boston vs. Connecticut's Olivia Nelson-Ododa. The 6-5 Boston was the Naismith Player of the Year. Nelson-Ododa is also 6-5 and a member of the All-Big East first team. The Huskies desperately needed Nelson-Ododa to provide an inside presence early, but she picked up two fouls in the first quarter and played just three minutes in the second quarter. Boston scored on back-to-back possessions after her counterpart left the game. The national defensive player of the year also forced UConn's Aaliyah Edwards to step out of bounds on a baseline drive to end the opening period with South Carolina leading 22-8. Nelson-Ododa was never able to get going and finished with as many fouls (four) as points on the night in 24 minutes. Boston was scoreless in the second quarter and finished with 11 points on 3-for-8 shooting, but she still grabbed 16 rebounds. She won the Final Four's most outstanding player award. Boston became the first player to average 15 points and 15 rebounds in the tournament for a national champion.

Surprisingly, the Gamecocks were able to advance to Sunday's championship game without a dominant rebounding performance against Louisville in Friday's semifinals. They were actually outrebounded on the offensive end, but that wasn't the case against UConn. In the first half, South Carolina had a 16-3 edge on the offensive boards and 17-2 in second-chance points. Geno Auriemma's inside depth suffered with the loss of Dorka Juhasz to a wrist injury in the Elite Eight. Boston, who had 34 combined rebounds in two Final Four games, had help on the glass Sunday. South Carolina's 6-7 Kamilla Cardoso and Victaria Saxton also gave their team extra possessions by caroming eight combined offensive boards. Dawn Staley's team ranked third in Division I basketball with 17.1 offensive boards per game this season, which was tops among high-major programs. The Gamecocks finished with 22 second-chance points and 21 offensive rebounds Sunday.

For the first time in NCAA women's basketball tournament history, the last two Division I players of the year faced each other Sunday at Target Center. Boston won several awards this season given to the nation's top player. That elite distinction belonged to UConn guard Paige Bueckers last season as a freshman sensation. Bueckers and Boston meeting in the biggest game of the year seemed as good as it gets for star power. But they were both outshined. Destanni Henderson led all scorers with a career-high 26 points, including 15 points in the second half. Bueckers went scoreless in the first quarter, but she had nine of her 14 points in the second quarter to claw back from an 18-point first-half deficit. Bueckers needed help to match South Carolina's backcourt tandem, including Zia Cooke. The 5-7 Henderson, though, took over in arguably the most critical stretch of the game. A 10-0 run pulled the Huskies within 43-37 late in the third quarter, but Henderson scored seven straight points to hold them off.

UConn was able to survive Friday's semifinal against Stanford despite committing 19 turnovers. But struggling to take care of the ball again was too much to overcome vs. South Carolina. If that sounds familiar that's because the Huskies had 19 turnovers in their 73-57 loss against the Gamecocks in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship on Nov. 22. Auriemma's players talked entering Sunday's rematch about how he put them through the most grueling practices of the season after struggling to finish things off in the Bahamas. Not sure if that sunk in enough. Bueckers, who had five turnovers against Stanford, was much better with her decision making Sunday. But her teammates were rattled with the on-ball pressure of the Staley's team that scored 16 points on 15 turnovers in the championship.

The Gamecocks were up for the challenge when Louisville and UConn outscored them 37-30 combined in the second quarter and managed to still lead at halftime in both games. And South Carolina's second-half response gave it enough cushion to handle comeback attempts from its opponents. The Cardinals were outscored 38-31 in the second half Friday, which included a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter before allowing rarely-used reserves to play. On Sunday night, UConn got within seven points in the fourth quarter, but South Carolina took control for good with an 11-2 run. Auriemma's team was held without a field goal in the final 1:47.