Paige Bueckers reached the Final Four every season she was healthy at UConn. The Huskies made it to the national title game in 2022, losing to South Carolina in Bueckers’ hometown of Minneapolis. It is the only time head coach Geno Auriemma has ever been beaten with a championship on the line.
After missing the 2022-23 season due to injury and falling in the Final Four last season, Bueckers returned this year for her final attempt at leading the storied program back to the top for the first time since 2016. Not surprisingly, the last remaining obstacle standing between the three-time first-team All-American and a fairytale ending were those South Carolina Gamecocks.
>> Subscribe to Sports Spectrum Magazine for more stories where sports and faith connect <<
Bueckers and UConn would not be denied this time.
The Huskies won the first two quarters of Sunday’s eagerly anticipated showdown and took a 36-26 lead into halftime. They doubled their advantage by the end of the third quarter and ultimately secured a dominant 82-59 victory and 12th national title, breaking a tie with the UCLA men for the most in Division I history.
NUMBER 12!
pic.twitter.com/MnYyTRF24j
— UConn Huskies (@UConnHuskies) April 6, 2025
“We feel like we were so connected, and nothing could break us,” Bueckers said in the postgame press conference. “We’ve been through a lot — on our own, as a team — so we feel like nothing that life or basketball can throw at us could ever break us and make us separate. To be able to … share this moment is extremely validating.”
UConn’s big three of Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong combined for 65 points, 26 rebounds and nine assists, with Bueckers contributing 17 points, six rebounds and a team-high three steals. She scored the 477th point of her NCAA Tournament career in the fourth quarter, passing Maya Moore for the most in program history. In the Huskies’ six-game run to the title, Bueckers averaged 24.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists on 52.8% shooting.
Paige Bueckers, a UConn legend pic.twitter.com/Ugfge1KpOT
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) April 6, 2025
Helping Bueckers navigate all of the pressure and emotions has been her unwavering faith in God. Reflecting on her journey during an on-court interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe immediately after the game, she encouraged people to “stand firm in who you are.”
“There’s people that doubt you because they think you’re doing it on your strength alone,” she said during the interview. “We lean on God’s strength here, and through God’s power, for God’s purposes. We’re not doing this alone.”
“We lean on God’s strength here.”
Great stuff from Paige Bueckers after helping UConn win the women’s college basketball national title pic.twitter.com/IkiZHklJNy
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) April 6, 2025
Later in the postgame press conference, Bueckers added, “It’s destiny and obviously I have a great faith, so I believe God planned it perfectly in the way that it went out.”
Everyone, including Bueckers, knew that she would leave as the greatest player in program history to never cut down the nets if UConn — which won the regular-season meeting between these two teams by 29 — lost to South Carolina again. She focused her energy on being present and enjoying her final game in a Huskies uniform rather than worrying about what was at stake.
“We prayed, we prepared, and we hoped to be playing on the last day of the season,” Bueckers said Friday following the team’s 85-61 victory over No. 1 overall seed UCLA in the Final Four. “We got that opportunity. We don’t want to take it for granted. And you don’t want to get caught up in the moment of being so anxious and trying to win the national championship in one possession that you’re just psyching yourself out, but to be present with the team, to be where your feet are and try to win every single possession that’s in front of you.”
One of the most highly touted recruits in recent memory, Bueckers’ college career has featured brilliant performances, 159 total wins and no shortage of adversity. She missed the entire 2022-23 season with a torn left ACL, but declared that “God is using me as a testimony” in an Instagram post reflecting on the injury.
View this post on Instagram
(@paigebueckers)Bueckers returned last season and led UConn back to the Final Four, where the Huskies fell to Iowa by two. She gave thanks to God in a postgame interview after their Elite Eight victory over USC.
“Just so much gratitude. I’m a living testimony,” Bueckers told ESPN. “I give all glory to God. He works in mysterious ways. Last year, I was praying to be back at this stage. He sent me trials and tribulations, but it was to build my character. It was to test my faith to see if I was only a believer in the good times. I just kept on believing. I did all I could so God could do all I can’t.”
Bueckers — who lists Proverbs 3:5-6 in her Instagram bio — also recently spoke about her faith with GQ, saying she grew up Catholic but began attending a nondenominational church in high school with her then-stepmother, and that she often listens to gospel music before games.
“I didn’t build my relationship with God because of the way I was brought up, but more because I’ve seen the way He’s impacted my life,” she told GQ, referencing a quote she once heard.
How she’s lived out her faith has impacted her teammates. Fudd, who was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, was asked in Sunday’s postgame press conference how she was able to play so freely.
“Well, first, I think my faith. I feel Paige and other people on the team have been really inspirational in that respect,” Fudd said. “So being able to let go, give it to God, definitely takes that pressure that I put on myself away.”
Bueckers now will have a few days to celebrate before turning her attention to the WNBA Draft, where she is expected to be taken by the Dallas Wings with the No. 1 overall pick. The draft begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on April 14 and will be broadcast on ESPN.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
RELATED STORIES:
— Paige Bueckers confident in God’s promises in return from ACL tear
— Paige Bueckers, after ACL tear, feels ‘God is using me as a testimony’
— TCU’s Hailey Van Lith ‘really standing on God’s shoulders’
— Hannah Hidalgo in elite All-American company: ‘All glory to God’
— UCLA coach Cori Close leans on ‘dependent relationship’ with Christ
A Morning to Remember in San Antonio! 
