NCAA Women's Final Four live winners and losers: Updates on South Carolina, UConn, Texas, UCLA

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Apr 4, 2026 - 07:30
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NCAA Women's Final Four live winners and losers: Updates on South Carolina, UConn, Texas, UCLA
South Carolina vs UConn Final Four - 040326

NCAA Women's Final Four live winners and losers: Updates on South Carolina, UConn, Texas, UCLA originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Friday's slate of games sets up nicely for competitive games, resulting in the National Championship matchup. South Carolina Gamecocks vs the UConn Huskies is not only a matchup of 1s vs 1s, it's also a rematch. Last year UConn defeated South Carolina 82-59 in the National Championship game. 

The semifinal game tonight has been rather close. South Carolina has held the lead for exactly 51% of the game as of the start of the 4th quarter. 

Winners: 

The first "winner" is Women's College Basketball fans. After the Elite Eight round that included not one single close game, UConn vs S. Carolina has been exactly what fans need. Two elite programs battling it out in a close, competitive game. 

Raven Johnson (S.CAR): Johnson drew the assignment of defending Sarah Strong. Johnson is giving up 5" in size but has held Strong to only 12 points on 4 of 16 shooting. 

Ta'Niya Latson (S.CAR): First double-double in a Final Four. After sacrificing to play for South Carolina. 

Dawn Staley's post-game press conference response to the post game handshake issue. Coach Staley did not want that situation to deflect for the content of the game. 

Losers:

Anyone rooting for a blowout when these two teams face each other

The Big East after hearing Geno Auriemma's comments between the 3rd and 4th quarter. 

Kayleigh Heckel missed a wide-open layup to cut the lead with 1:07 left in the game. We'll leave it at that as she was visibly shaken after that play.  

UConn's inability to keep it close down the stretch. After 70% of the game being extremely close, South Carolina was able to separate at the wrong time. 

The post game handshake. Tempers were running hot after the 3rd quarter. Auriemma made sure to express his feelings during the post-game handshake. Which was anything but pleasant. 

Highlights and fan reactions: 

Tempers flare during the post-game handshake between Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley

Up next, No. 1 UCLA vs No. 1 Texas.

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