TAMPA, Fla. — UConn is back on top of women’s basketball, winning its 12th national championship by routing defending champion South Carolina 82-59 on Sunday behind Azzi Fudd’s 24 points.

Sarah Strong added 24 points and 15 rebounds, and Paige Bueckers scored 17 points in her final game at UConn (37-3).

“Well, it’s amazing to have three players, three people like that on the same team,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “And Sarah, you would think Sarah was graduating the way she plays, right? All three of them complement each other so well. They all have such unique skill sets.”

Bueckers capped her stellar career with the Huskies’ first championship since 2016, ending a nine-year drought for the team. That was the longest period for Auriemma and his program without a title since Rebecca Lobo and Jen Rizzotti led the Huskies to their first championship in 1995.

Since then the Huskies have had dominant championship runs, including in the early 2000s led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, 2009-10 with Maya Moore and finally the four straight from 2013-16 with Breanna Stewart. All were in attendance in Florida on Sunday to see the Huskies’ latest title.

“You just never know if you’ll ever be back in this situation again,” Auriemma said. “And there were so many times when I think we all questioned, ‘Have we been here too long? Has it been time?’ And we kept hanging in there and hanging in there and that’s because these players make me want to hang in there every day.”

Bueckers, the expected No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft on April 14, delivered for the Huskies throughout their championship season.

It was the only thing missing from an incredible UConn career that was slowed by injuries. She was the first freshman to win AP Player of the Year before missing a lot of her sophomore season with a tibial plateau fracture and meniscus tear. She then tore an ACL before the next season.

UConn closed the first half up 10 points and then put the game away in the third quarter behind Fudd, Strong and Bueckers. The trio combined for 23 of the team’s 26 points in the quarter. UConn was up 50-39 with 3:21 left in the period before closing with a 12-3 run.

Fudd, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, and Strong got it started with back-to-back 3s, and the rout was on. Auriemma subbed Bueckers, Fudd and Strong out with 1:32 left in the game. Bueckers and Auriemma had a long hug on the sideline, having finally gotten that championship that he so wanted for her.

“They’ve all been gratifying, don’t get me wrong. But this one here, because of the way it came about and what’s been involved, it’s been a long time since I’ve been that emotional when a player has walked off the court,” Auriemma said.

Dawn Staley’s team was trying for a third title in four years and fourth overall. It would have tied her with Kim Mulkey for third most behind Auriemma and former Tennessee Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt, who had eight.

“Our kids gave it all they had. When you can understand why you lost and when you’ve been on the other side of that three times, you understand it,” Staley said. “You can swallow it. We lost to a very good basketball team.”

UConn had reached the title game only once during its drought since 2016. The Huskies had been eliminated by heartbreaking last-second losses in the Final Four on buzzer-beaters. The Huskies’ last title game appearance came in 2022 when Staley’s team beat UConn to start the Gamecocks’ current run of success, a game that ended Auriemma’s perfect record in title games.

There seemed to be no nerves early for either team as the game got off to a fast start. The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes before the defenses started to clamp down. The Huskies led 19-14 after one quarter and then extended the advantage to 36-26 at the half. Fudd had 13 points and Strong added eight points and 11 rebounds.

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Yordan Alvarez got a pitch to his liking and unleashed all the might of the 6-foot-4, 240-pound designated hitter behind the swing. It was a high fastball from Griffin Jax, right at the top of the zone, and it quickly disappeared into the second deck in right-center field.

Alvarez’s ninth-inning home run completed Houston’s comeback. Once trailing by six runs, the Astros marched all the way back back to knot the game, then scored another pair of runs in the 10th to oust the Twins 9-7 on Sunday afternoon in the series finale at Target Field.

Jose Altuve’s RBI single in the 10th gave the Astros, who added an insurance run later in the inning, their first lead since the first inning.

Things could have unraveled completely for the Twins in that first inning, but Twins starter Chris Paddack locked in after giving up three hits in the frame, surrendering only the one run. Then the Twins surged ahead in the bottom of the frame, scoring three runs, one on a Trevor Larnach sacrifice fly and then next two on a Ryan Jeffers double off the wall.

The Twins kept building on that lead, adding one run in the second and three more in the fourth, an inning started by Matt Wallner, who collected four hits in the loss. But the Twins’ offense, up six, did not score after the fourth inning. And in the fifth, Houston began its climb back.

Paddack found trouble yet again in a fifth frame that began with a walk, double and a Willi Castro throwing error, a play on which a run scored. Paddack departed with the bases loaded, making way for Cole Sands, who did his part to minimize the damage. But, all told, three runs scored.

Houston scored again in the sixth to pull within two, an inning that could have been much worse had Harrison Bader’s diving catch on a Alvarez liner to left field not saved a run, or potentially even two.

And that’s where things stood until the ninth. The Twins put two runners aboard in the eighth inning, but weren’t able to do any damage.

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Losing steam as the regular season winds down, the Wild cowboyed up when they needed to on Sunday.

After losing a one-goal lead late in the third period, Marco Rossi deflected a feed from Mats Zuccarello past Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger on a 4-on-3 man advantage in overtime to beat the Stars, 3-2, at Xcel Energy Center.

Matt Boldy and Marcus Foligno scored third-period goals, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots as the Wild earned two points for the first time since their 4-2 victory over Washington on March 27.

The win helped solidify the Wild’s hold on the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, giving them a six point advantage, 91-85, on idle Calgary, which has two games in hand on Minnesota and will finish with the NHL’s last regular-game April 17 at Los Angeles against a Kings team that already has clinched a playoff spot.

Boldy had a hand in all three goals, finishing with a goal and two assists. He even drew the penalty five seconds into overtime, a tripping call on top winger Jason Robertson. Foligno had a strong game, as well, making some strong plays as the Wild finished off a penalty kill late to send the game into overtime.

Robertson gave the Stars 1-0 lead with a snipe from outside the left circle just under 6 minutes into the first period, but both Gustavsson and Jake Oettinger were stout for the next 40 minutes, and the Stars retained their lead until early in the third period.

That changed when Boldy, active on a long forecheck, one-timed a rebound while falling between the circles to beat Oettinger to the left corner just 3:08 into the final frame. Less than 2 minutes later, Foligno crashed the net, corralled his own rebound and poked the puck past Oettinger for a 2-1 lead at 5:00.

But Dallas bounced back to tie it late in regulation when defenseman Thomas Harley wristed a shot through the circles from the point and it redirected past Gustavsson off the shin pad of defenseman Zach Bogosian to make it 2-2 at 13:05.

It was a huge win for the Wild, who take a softer cushion west for three road games starting Wednesday at San Jose. Minnesota has back-to-backs at Calgary and Vancouver on Friday and Saturday before returning home for the regular-season finale against Anaheim on April 15.

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Minnesota United scored two first-half goals and that held up in a 2-1 victory over New York City on Sunday at Yankee Stadium.

NYCFC were more aggressive in the second half and Keaton Parks’ scored in the 89th minute to make it a closer finish.

But unlike the Kansas City and L.A. Galaxy draws, the Loons (4-1-2, 14 points) didn’t surrender this lead against New York (2-3-2, 8 points).

Here are three takeaways:

A New York minute

Tani Oluwaseyi’s goal was registered 59 seconds into the match — only eight seconds later than the club record for fastest goal.

Robin Lod’s mark still that holds. The Finn found the back of the net 51 seconds into a 2-0 win over Houston in September 2021.

Oluwaseyi now has five goals in his last three MLS matches.

Set piece success

The Loons have scored 11 goals this season, with five coming on set plays. Wil Trapp provided the latest.

On a short free kick from Joaquin Pereyra, Trapp sent in a low shot from outside the 18-yard box. It took a deflection and beat goalkeeper Matt Freese in the 29th minute.

Trapp is not known for accurate shots from distance, but he had three on target from long range on Sunday.

PK blunder

United goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair keeps inducing — or benefitting from — opponent misses from the penalty spot. It was a major theme in Minnesota’s sweep of Real Salt Lake in the MLS Cup Playoffs last fall. And Alonso Martinez kept the theme alive when he put a PK off the crossbar in first-half stoppage time.

Martinez has shot to the goalkeeper’s right in recent PKs and that is where St. Clair dove, but it wasn’t on target.

Before the attempt, St. Clair talked to Martinez and endured a smile from Martinez. That mind game might have helped St. Clair.

Another factor might have been the few-minute delay while VAR reviewed whether Michael Boxall’s action was worthy of a PK.

New York didn’t register a shot on target until the 77th minute.

Three tidbits

Boxall was reinserted into the starting XI, with Morris Duggan dropping to the bench. … With Kelvin Yeboah’s goal production, Ghana might come calling for him to join the men’s national team. … Former Loons midfielder and sideline reporter Jamie Watson called Sunday’s match on Apple TV.

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