HARTFORD, Conn. -- The results, the finish, packed their customary wallop. The winners could rejoice as though they'd won something bigger than a high-profile regular season game, the losing side felt the sting, the kind usually reserved for March.

"It hurts to lose, we don't like losing," Sarah Strong said. "I don't know. I'm just kind of upset right now at the way it ended."

Strong, a freshman who at times was the most effective player on the floor despite the presence of the two of the game's established superstars, was at the foul line for three shots to tie the game with 5 seconds left. She made the first, missed the second, intentionally missed the third. When UConn came up with the rebound, Strong got a chance for a desperation shot at the buzzer, but that wasn't close.

That's the way it ended on Saturday night with nearly every nook of the XL Center filled by a raspy-throated fan wearing white,15,684 in all, a presumably large TV audience drained, but for neither team was this an end.

"It his a little different," USC's JuJu Watkins told a room packed wall-to-wall with media. "Knowing the history of last year and how they sent us home (in the regional final). I don't think I've ever played in front of so many people."

The UConn-Southern Cal women's basketball showdown was all it was meant to be, and a little more. That is was decided by two points was not a surprise; that the Huskies had to come from 18 points behind, and did so, probably was.

So it was USC 72, UConn 70. It was Watkins 25, Paige Bueckers 22, Kiki Iriafen 16 points, 11 rebounds, Strong 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, four steals.

The last round went to UConn and it meant a trip to the Final Four nine months ago. This round goes to USC (11-1), which will move up from No.7 in the last AP poll of 2024. UConn, No. 4, will slip a bit. Notre Dame has beaten both. That will be the state of affairs when the last pages of the year's calendar are torn off.

For UConn, the year ends with hope -- a little uncertainty, but hope. Geno Auriemma figured after a series of games against ranked teams, he would know what his team was all about by Christmas. Double-digit wins over several solid opponents have shown him what these Huskies have to give, the loss at Notre Dame and the first half of this game indicate he must still figure out how to get to it more consistently.

"It's not that we can't," Auriemma said. "'Because we spent 20 minutes doing it. If you look at our first-half team, we're nowhere. If you look at our second-half team, we're a really, really good basketball team that can probably beat any team in the country."

The way this game played out was certainly unusual. Watkins and Southern Cal shot amazingly in the first half, including 7 for 11 on threes and a lot of contested twos going in. The Huskies shot poorly, but it was more than just the bounces and the rims. The Trojans looked so much bigger, more athletic and tougher, it looked, as it has on occasion the last couple of years, as if UConn was no longer on the sport's highest plateau.

Then Auriemma went to a smaller, quicker, more aggressive lineup that included Strong at center, with KK Arnold and Morgan Cheli in to disrupt on defense. Execution improved, Bueckers, 3 for 10 in the first half, started heating up and the Huskies, down 18 early in the third quarter, held Watkins scoreless for a long stretch and outscored USC 32-13 to take the lead on Strong's basket with 4:34 to play. It was tied at 67 with 2:24 left.

Through all its illustrious history, UConn has never come from 18 points down to win a game. How often have the Huskies ever been 18 points behind? With such a win in the offing, a few missed shots down the stretch, open threes (UConn was 6 for 23), a short jumper from Bueckers off the iron with 1:24 left, as well as free throws, where UConn was 10 for 17, were all among the difference-makers.

The last three free throws were only the tip of a losing iceberg. There were dozens of plays that turned out to be crucial, as there are in any close game. In fouling Strong as she attempted a game-tying three with five seconds left, Watkins could have been dealing with the kind of emotions Strong was, and as a quick aside: Major respect for Strong's maturity in talking to reporters afterward. That's not to be taken for granted any more.

The magnitude of this night had Auriemma recalling, as he occasionally does, the days when his team played in the first game of doubleheaders in this building and there were barely 100 people in the stands. It had USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb remembering when she was a student at Brown and asked her father to drive her to Storrs to see one of the 1990s UConn-Tennessee showdowns that built the sport.

"It's a testament that when you give women a platform, we're going to perform," Watkins said. "It was just beautiful to be a part of, and I couldn't imagine watching it."

We'll soon learn the TV ratings for the prime-time Fox telecast, and how they compared to the Ohio State-Tennessee football quarterfinal, but it was a great night for women's basketball.

It would be better, still, if we didn't have to keep saying that, if games like this could become more commonplace, if UConn, for example, had more challenges like this in the Big East. There are more elite players and contending teams than there used to be, but there is still a huge drop-off from the top handful of teams and the rest.

The Huskies' epic, if ill-fated comeback showed they are still a member in good standing of that elite club, though it will be hard to gauge progress until they poke their heads up from conference play and go to South Carolina on Feb. 16. There are questions, but no reason to believe that 12th championship is off the table.

"When we're really good, we're really good," Bueckers said, "and when we're not, we're not. Like Coach was saying, we can't have two teams that show up every single night, whether our first half team or our second half team, we have to remain consistent in who we are and what gets us to winning."

USC will be among the lead group chasing the title. And we can warm our hands by the possibility these teams will meet again in March. Let's sign up for that.

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