On Apr. 2, 1 seeded UConn women’s basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss to 3 seeded Arizona with a score of 69-59 in the Women’s March Madness Final Four. This makes it the fifth year in a row that the Huskies have not won a national championship while being favored almost every year.

“UConn had a great run in the tournament this year, although myself and my mom wanted them to get their 12th national championship, we are still impressed by their promising future and great season,” said freshman Jack Guagliano.

Although the Huskies were dominating the bracket all the way up to the final four, they shot poorly against Arizona with a field goal percentage of only 32% and were getting slowed down on every offense played by the Arizona defense. At the half, the Huskies only had 22 points and never once were in the lead. 

“I wasn’t disappointed or impressed by them. When they lost to Arizona, they could’ve made it a much closer game, all through Arizona’s high-pressure defense made it difficult. They lost because they didn’t want it as bad as Arizona did and it showed,” said freshman Nandini Patel.

Freshman Paige Bueckers, who was named the Associated Press Player of the Year, finished with 18 points that she noted were hard to come by. Although that is around what she has been averaging this year, she usually is much more dominant.

“They tried to deny everything that I tried to do including catches, cuts, and screening,” said UConn point guard Paige Bueckers.

The Huskies entered the tournament as the one seed and blew out the 16th seeded High Point, almost doubling their score. After that game, they beat eight seed Syracuse, five seed Iowa, and two-seeded Baylor to make it to the final four.

“I thought they had a good season though. After years and years of being undefeated, many people root against them. It’s nice to see more diversity in the winner of the women’s tournament these past few years. Nonetheless, I was still impressed with their team. Paige Buckers always puts on an amazing performance. Their whole team will be returning next season, as well as adding freshman talent such as Azzi Fudd. The future for the team is really bright,” said senior Devyn Dyett.

UConn’s women’s basketball team finished with a record of 28-2 and were considered one of the best teams the whole season. Although they did not achieve the end goal they wanted, with a young team, they have a promising future led by star point guard Paige Beuckers.