In a showdown of decorated women’s college basketball programs, it’s the No. 2 seed Connecticut Huskies who are sizable favorites over defending national champion and No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks in Sunday’s national championship game.
UConn opened as a 5.5-point favorite at some sportsbooks late Friday and was up to a 6.5-point favorite at BetMGM as of Saturday morning. The total in the game was set at 132.5 points.
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“We opened UConn -6 overnight and it’s been mostly early UConn money,” Thomas Gable, BetMGM sportsbook director at The Borgata in Atlantic City, told Yahoo Sports on Saturday morning. “We’re now up to -6.5. Total hasn’t moved from 132.5.”
Oddsmakers generally have been rooting against the Huskies, as they were in good shape if any of the three other teams won the title.
“UConn is our worst result, and we’re really hoping they get knocked out,” Hannah Luther, a BetMGM trader, said in a news release Friday. UConn and South Carolina both received the majority of betting action to win the title at sportsbooks across the country, but some books have liability on South Carolina to win it all.
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UConn routed UCLA to reach the title game Friday night, and South Carolina had an easy time against Texas to advance.
The teams have played once already this season in February. The Huskies were 7.5-point underdogs and beat South Carolina 87-58, a loss that snapped the Gamecocks’ record 71-game home winning streak.
The Huskies are 4-1 against the spread in the tournament so far, while the Gamecocks are 2-3 ATS.
