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UConn coach Geno Auriemma and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had a heated exchange on the sideline after the Gamecocks beat the undefeated Huskies 62-48 in Friday night’s semi-final of the NCAA Women’s Tournament. South Carolina ended UConn’s winning streak at 54 games and secured a return trip to the national championship game.

As the two went to shake hands with 0.1 seconds left, Auriemma appeared to go to shake Staley’s hand and began yelling in her direction. Staley responded with words of her own. Assistant coaches went to calm the two sides, and UConn inbounded the ball to end the game.

Staley went to shake hands with UConn staffers while Auriemma headed for the tunnel without appearing to shake the hands of any South Carolina players or coaches. Players from both teams shook hands before the UConn players sprinted up the tunnel.

“I’m of integrity. So if I did something wrong to Geno, I had no idea what I did,” Staley told ESPN’s Holly Rowe in the postgame interview. “I guess he thought I didn’t shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I went down there pregame, shook everybody on his staff’s hand. I don’t know what he came with after the game, but hey, sometimes things get heated. We move on.”

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Auriemma gave a heated mid-game interview to Rowe, airing his frustration about officiating.

“There were six fouls called that [third] quarter, all of them against us. And they’ve been beating the shit out of our guys down there the entire game. And I’m not making excuses for us, we haven’t been able to make a shot, but this is ridiculous. Their coach rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referee some names you don’t want to hear, and now we get six to zero and I got a kid with a ripped jersey and [the referees] go ‘I didn’t see it.’ C’mon, man. This is for the national championship.”

UConn’s frustration boiled over after a brutal offensive night for the team’s All-America combo of Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd. Strong finished with just 12 points on 4-of-16 shooting. Fudd scored eight on 3-of-15 shooting, including 2 of 9 from long range.

The problem for Strong and Fudd was they couldn’t hit shots even when they had a little space to operate. The 6ft 2in Strong was bothered by South Carolina’s interior size, with several of her inside shots rattling in and out.

Bodies were flying under the basket for the majority of the night for both teams. UConn were whistled for 17 fouls, while South Carolina were called for eight.

UConn (38-1) entered the Final Four undefeated for the ninth time in school history and for the third straight time left without a title. The Huskies also lost in the 2017 and 2018 national semifinals. This was the fewest points UConn had scored since putting up 49 points in a national championship game loss to the Gamecocks in 2022.

“Coach was pretty mad going into the half,” Latson said of coach Dawn Staley. “She was yelling ‘Meet the moment! Meet the moment!’ We couldn’t be scared to play on this stage, especially against UConn. I mean, they were undefeated.”

Ta’Niya Latson scored 16 and Agot Makeer added 14 points for South Carolina (34-3).

The teams came into the game as the second- and third-leading scoring teams in the nation, both averaging over 87 points per game. This was a defensive battle.

Leading 46-44 a few minutes into the third quarter, South Carolina scored five straight points, capped by Makeer’s three-pointer to extend the advantage to seven.

Sarah Strong hit a three-pointer to get the Huskies back within 51-47 with 4:39 left. The Huskies didn’t score again until Strong hit a free throw with 30.8 seconds left, after South Carolina had scored 11 straight points.

Trailing 26-24 at the half, South Carolina opened the third quarter with a 12-2 run to take the lead. The Gamecocks extended the advantage to 40-30 — the biggest deficit the Huskies’ had faced this season.

UConn had defeated South Carolina in last year’s national championship game. The Gamecocks will seek their fourth national title against the winner of Friday night’s other semi-final between UCLA and Texas.