Paige Bueckers' gritty performance leads UConn past the reigning champion Stanford Cardinal

• Paige Bueckers has been exactly what the Huskies have needed in this year's NCAA tournament.
• The sophomore star returned from an early-season injury to lead UConn back to the national title game.

UConn spent most of its regular season struggling without its sophomore superstar.

But when the Huskies needed her most, she gave them exactly what they needed.

The 2021 National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers recorded a team-high 14 points and five assists — and tacked on four rebounds, two steals, and a block — to lead No. 2 UConn past the top-seeded Stanford Cardinal in Friday night's Final Four blockbuster. The Huskies led Tara VanDerveer's squad by narrow margins for most of the game, but survived a last-minute surge from the Cardinal deny the reigning champions a shot at defending their title.

Bueckers was diving all over the hardwood and scrapping for loose balls throughout the contest; you'd have never known watching Friday's thriller that the 6-foot point guard had missed the bulk of the season with an injury.

The Minnesota native went down with a torn meniscus in the final moments of UConn's matchup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on December 5. She underwent surgery to repair the issue shortly thereafter and missed 19 games while rehabbing her leg.

She absolutely shined like only Bueckers could when she made her highly anticipated return in late February, but struggled to reclaim her peak form in subsequent games. In this year's NCAA Tournament, however, she's steadily gotten her groove back, to the tune of 15.8 points per game since the Round of 32.

Despite Bueckers' less-than-stunning point total, nowhere has her resurgence been more apparent than in her gritty, unselfish Final Four performance.

The Huskies are now headed to their first national championship game in six years after making Final Four appearances in each of the past 14 tournaments. They'll face the wire-to-wire No. 1 team in the country — the South Carolina Gamecocks — for a chance to claim the program's 12th title in Sunday's season finale.

Fans can watch the action unfold Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.