Women’s March Madness championship odds: South Carolina favored over UCLA after upsetting UConn
· Yahoo Sports
The women’s March Madness championship is set: The SEC versus the (new) Big Ten. After a chalky run through the bracket, the South Carolina Gamecocks and the UCLA Bruins will face off in Sunday’s championship game. It’s one team’s first visit to the NCAA final. The Bruins are aiming for their first March Madness championship in program history, and Dawn Staley and her squad are going for their fourth in 10 years.
Perhaps thanks to this history, Staley’s team is favored by 2.5 points on DraftKings versus Cori Close’s UCLA crew. South Carolina’s moneyline odds of -155 imply a 60 percent chance of winning. The total, at over/under 132.5, is well over the number hit by both semifinal matchups: South Carolina’s final score was 62-48 (110 total), and UCLA beat Texas 51-44, for a total that didn’t even top 100.
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Both have been dominant programs for years, and both came into this tournament as No. 1 seeds. The women’s Final Four has been a treat for anyone who loves blockbuster matchups: For the fifth time in women’s NCAA Tournament history, all four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four. As The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant wrote, Goliaths in the finals is good for fans and for the sport. And yet, the two semifinal games were some of the lowest-scoring for all four teams.
Will the championship look the same? Or will either of these blazing offenses find its rhythm?
South Carolina opens as favorite against UCLA
We asked if the Gamecocks would enter their Final Four matchup with vengeance on their minds. And it appears they did.
As 7-point underdogs, South Carolina pulled off the upset of the tournament, beating UConn and ending the Huskies’ 54-game win streak with their worst loss since Feb 11, 2024. Want to guess which team beat them back then? Yes, it was South Carolina. The Gamecocks’ revenge was for a 23-point loss in last year’s NCAA title game, a loss the team was reminded of every morning during the offseason.
This is South Carolina’s third straight national championship game and fourth in five years.
The Gamecocks figured out how to shut down UConn’s explosive offense: The Huskies averaged 87 points this season and managed about half that in the semifinal. Neither team shot well, but South Carolina was everywhere on defense. The entire Huskies offense shot just 31 percent from the field. South Carolina showed a clinch factor that will be crucial in the championship, shooting 46 percent from the field in the third quarter (versus 37 percent overall) and taking a 10-point lead with three minutes left in the quarter.
Next up: UCLA. In another bafflingly low-scoring semifinal, the Bruins put away Texas, the 3.5-point underdog. Merchant jokingly called it a “1930s-era game” where a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter seemed insurmountable. (Texas pulled within 3 points late but couldn’t finish.)
UCLA capitalized on a night when its opponents’ stars were muted, powering through a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, which was enough to stave off Texas’ own 7-0 run near the end. Bruins star Lauren Betts stepped up with 16 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, including a decisive block late in the fourth quarter. Guards Gabriela Jaquez and Gianna Kneepkens finished with 10 points each.
The Bruins and Gamecocks haven’t yet played each other this season. Last year, UCLA beat South Carolina by 15 in the regular season.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
UCLA Bruins, South Carolina Gamecocks, Women's College Basketball, Sports Betting
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