We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can catch up on the game by scrolling through the posts below, and join us tomorrow for coverage of the men’s title game.

It was a comprehensive win for the UConn Huskies in the national championship game against the South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday in Tampa.

UConn was once again powered by their Big 3 – senior guards Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd along with freshman forward Sarah Strong.

Fudd and Strong tallied a game-high 24 points each, with Strong also pulling down 15 rebounds. National Player of the Year finalist Paige Bueckers added 17 points.

Sunday’s easy win was just another in a dominant March Madness run for this Huskies team. UConn’s average margin of victory over their six tournament wins was 32.5 points. The Big East champs’ 34-point win over UCLA in the national semi-final was the biggest blowout in women’s Final Four history.

It was a fitting send-off for fifth-year senior Bueckers, whose incredible career has also been marked by serious injuries. Bueckers walks away a champion and the presumptive top pick in the upcoming WNBA draft.

UConn is back on top.

The most storied program in women’s college basketball won its 12th national championship on Sunday, dethroning South Carolina 82-59.

Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong both scored a game-high 24 points for the Huskies, who led by 10 points at halftime and 20 after the third quarter. Paige Bueckers added 17 points and six rebounds.

Check out the best photos from the game.

“I love you.”

That was UConn head coach Geno Auriemma’s message to senior guard Paige Bueckers as the two shared an emotional hug after she subbed out of the game late in the Huskies’ championship win against South Carolina.

“That’s all I could say. I love you,” Auriemma told ESPN after the game.

The feeling is mutual.

“I love that man more than words could describe,” Bueckers said to ESPN.

“And there’s a lot of times, I don’t,” she added with a laugh. “But it’s because he’s challenging me and making us all better in ways we never even knew we could.

“And he always has our back, that’s the thing. Sometimes it feels like he’s on you and he has nothing but bad things to say, but he always has belief, he always has your back. And just the relationship we have, I can’t even put into words.”

Eight-time coach of the year Auriemma said the love within his team developed over the course of their championship season.

“About two months ago, this team fell in love with each other,” Auriemma said to ESPN.

“I think after the Tennessee game, I think they fell in love with each other, with the process, with ourselves as a group. And they started liking their coaches.

“I’ve just never been happier than I’ve been the last couple of months coaching a team.”

What UConn has done to South Carolina is transporting us back in time by a solid decade.

This type of performance is what UConn teams did year in and year out: just utterly dominate. It was a shock whenever a team would hang with UConn for a game, even when – not if – that team didn’t win.

Seeing this performance, it’s almost unbelievable that UConn had not won a title since 2016. Scores like this were commonplace when the Huskies were essentially in charge of women’s college basketball.

But in recent years, women’s college basketball has started to open up, and UConn had lost its place as the lone team at the top. Parity has crept in.In previous years, there typically was one, maybe two, clear favorites heading into an NCAA tournament.

This year, however, was the first one ever for me where I thought, “Wow. This is wide open. Several teams can win.” UCLA. USC before JuJu Watkins got hurt. South Carolina. Texas. Notre Dame. UConn. LSU. Several teams had legitimate cases.

This matchup between UConn and South Carolina clearly was favorable for the Huskies; that was proven in the regular season February 16 when UConn also dominated the Gamecocks with an 87-58 win in Columbia, South Carolina.

But don’t let the final score sway you in thinking that there’s just one women’s college basketball team ruling the sport. It’s far from it.

Next season should be fun.

The UConn Huskies have secured their record-extending 12th national title with a 82-59 win against the South Carolina Gamecocks.

At age 71, UConn’s head coach Geno Auriemma will become the oldest head coach to win an NCAA basketball championship — men’s or women’s — as soon as the final whistle blows in Tampa.

In his 40th season as the Huskies’ skipper, Auriemma has led his team to the Final Four a record 24 times. Sunday’s win will be the Huskies’ 12th national championship.

Auriemma has picked up eight Naismith Coach of the Year awards during his team’s decades of dominance.

As star senior Paige Bueckers subbed out of the game for the final time in her collegiate career, she and Auriemma shared a tearful hug on the sideline.

Freshman forward Sarah Strong hit a 3-pointer to stretch the Huskies’ lead to 30 points and the UConn faithful at Amalie Arena in Tampa have started their championship celebration. It all looks academic at this point.

After dispatching UCLA by a Final Four-record 34 points in the semifinals, the Huskies just might break their own record against the Gamecocks in the championship.

Strong is putting up huge numbers with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

With her team’s season on life support as UConn leads by 20 after three quarters, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley spoke to ESPN before the start of the fourth quarter.

Staley explained her team’s approach to trying to overcome a seemingly insurmountable deficit.

“Bucket by bucket, stop by stop” would be the mindset, Staley said.

“Tough battle for us today, but we’re going to continue to battle,” the four-time Naismith Coach of the Year said before returning to her bench.

As the third quarter draws to a close, there is a sense of inevitability in the air at Amalie Arena in Tampa.

The UConn Huskies seem to get more comfortable by the minute as they’re able to impose their will on the South Carolina Gamecocks, even without a big contribution from national Player of the Year finalist Paige Bueckers.

So far, Carolina doesn’t have anyone on the court who looks prepared to put the team on her back and lead a comeback charge.

Never one to hide her emotions, Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley’s frustration is on full display on the sideline as the game appears to be slipping away for her team.

The Gamecocks don’t have anyone with double-digit points yet, a mark surpassed by all of UConn’s big three stars — Azzi Fudd is leading the way with 24 points, while Sarah Strong has 17 and Bueckers has 12.

UConn takes its largest lead of the game to the fourth quarter.

The story coming into this game was set to be Paige Bueckers and her quest for a national title.

The story coming out of it very well may be Azzi Fudd.

The Huskies guard is leading all scorers with 21 points, shooting 8-12 from the field, and is just having her way with the South Carolina defense. She’s been the focal point for the Huskies since basically the opening tip.

Fudd announced last month that she was staying at UConn for another season, eschewing the WNBA draft for now.

Bueckers has been solid, with 10 points so far, but she’s easily the lowest-performing member of UConn’s Big 3. Sarah Strong has a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, chipping in two blocks and two steals as well.

Points were few and far between in the opening minutes of the second half.

That development seemed to suit the Huskies just fine as time is running out on the Gamecocks’ comeback bid.

Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong continue to provide the offense for UConn as the Huskies are now in front by 13.

The first half of the NCAA women’s basketball championship game delivered all the excitement that fans would have expected between two of the sport’s most dominant programs.

But UConn fans have the be thrilled with their chances as the second half begins.

If history is any indication, with a 36-26 lead, UConn is almost certain with win their 12th national championship. The Huskies are 90-2 all-time in NCAA tournament games in when they’ve led by double digits.

But South Carolina, winners of two of the last three championships, will have something to say about that before all is said and done the dust settles.

If South Carolina ccan’t find a way to slow down UConn’s three-headed monster, the game just might get away from them.

Freshman Sarah Strong and seniors backcourt duo Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers are scoring points in bunches as the game reached halftime.

Fudd leads the way with 13 points, followed by Strong and Bueckers with eight points each.

The Huskies led by as many as 11 points, but the Gamecocks found an answer in the final minute of the half with a 4-0 mini-run.

A triple from the corner from UConn sophomore Ashlynn Shade in the final seconds gave the Huskies a 10-point cushion headed to the locker room.

UConn is giving the 2024 champion Gamecocks their best shot, but South Carolina has a response each time it looks like the Huskies might pull way.

A jumper from Sania Feagin cut UConn’s advantage to just three points, but then the Huskies found another burst of energy.

Four straight points from Azzi Fudd grew UConn’s lead back to a more comfortable seven-point margin.

Paige Bueckers started the second quarter the same way she finished the first - sinking a jumper to extend the UConn lead.

As South Carolina’s scoring drought reached five minutes, the game looked to be in danger of slipping away from the Gamecocks.

But Dawn Staley’s squad showed the grit and determination of a defending champion and knocked down a pair of baskets to cut into UConn’s lead.

It was Bueckers again who knocked down a pair of free throw to bring the lead to seven.

After a scintillating start to the game, the play turned a little sloppy in the closing minutes of the first quarter.

Whether hard-nosed defense or championship jitters were to blame, the scoring pace slowed as both teams struggled to make shots.

After a long scoreless stretch, UConn’s star senior Paige Bueckers hit a jumper in the final seconds of the quarter to send the Huskies to the first intermission with a 5-point lead.

After UConn controlled the opening tip and missed their first few shot attempts, South Carolina opened the scoring with a 3-point basket from Te-Hina Paopao.

UConn bounced right back with a bucket from freshman phenom Sarah Strong to get on the scoreboard.

The two juggernaut programs then traded baskets in an exciting stretch of action that had all the hallmarks of a heavyweight boxing match.

The No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks and the No. 2 seed UConn Huskies have tipped off in the women’s NCAA basketball tournament championship game in Tampa, Florida.

This was the matchup that women’s hoops fans have been dreaming about all season - the sport’s two dominant programs going toe-to-toe for all the marbles.

Both teams boast star-studded rosters, headlined by UConn’s national player of the year finalist Paige Bueckers, who is riding a run of incredible play. The senior guard is averaging over 26 points a game during March Madness while shooting over 50% from 3-point range.

The Gamecocks, led by four-time Naismith Coach of the Year Dawn Staley, are seeking their third national championship in the past four seasons and their fourth in Staley’s 17-year tenure.

Defending champion South Carolina has made it to five straight Final Fours and has reached the Sweet 16 in every tournament since 2014.

While South Carolina might be the premier program of the past decade, the Huskies still reign supreme as the flagship of women’s college basketball.

UConn has reached the Sweet 16 in the past 31 consecutive NCAA tournaments, making the Final Four a record 24 times. The Huskies can bring their championship tally to an even dozen with a victory on Sunday.

The constant throughout UConn’s decades of dominance has been head coach Geno Auriemma, who is hoping to cap his 40th season at the helm of the Huskies with their first championship since 2016.

The Big East champs met the SEC champs one time during the regular season with the Huskies emerging with a dominant 87-58 win in February.

One year ago last Wednesday, Sarah Strong and Joyce Edwards played on the same team. The duo dominated the McDonald’s All-American game and were named co-MVPs.

Now, on the back of a season in which they have been arguably the best two freshmen in the country, they will share the court again in the biggest game in college basketball, but this time on opposite sides.

Strong is the more high-profile name. Only Paige Bueckers has scored more points than her for UConn this season, with the No. 1 recruit of the class of 2024 averaging 16.2 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists. The 6-foot-2 forward has carried her good run into the postseason, putting up 22 points in each of her last two games.

“You can’t really say enough great things about Sarah Strong,” said Bueckers. “She just contributes to us winning in so many different ways. A lot of things sometimes don’t show up in the stat sheet, but everything she does also shows up in the stat sheet. So she just has an impact on the game.”

But do not write off Edwards. The South Carolina native leads the Gamecocks in points off the bench, and is averaging 12.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists this season.

Having endured a slow start to the postseason, the No. 3 recruit of the 2024 class bounced back on Friday against Texas, racking up 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.