TAMPA, FLA. — No. 3 South Florida (23-10) defeated No. 9 Rice (17-17), 69-62, in the 2025 American Women’s Basketball Championship final on Wednesday evening, March 12, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
With the win over Rice, the USF Bulls earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“This is a special group,” USF head coach Jose Fernandez said. “They had to win three games in three days. There was a lot of disappointment, us losing on the road at Tulsa, and then losing at home to East Carolina and playing ourselves out of the at-large. Large conversation, I think they came to Fort Worth with a purpose.”
The Bulls were playing some of their best basketball against Rice to win the championship for the first time since 2021. The team shot 50% from the floor in the first quarter.
“It feels really good,” USF guard Mama Dembele said. “We’ve been working for this all year long and we can finally get the reward. It feels amazing. We did it as a team. We care about each other. We play for each other and we proved it on the court so I just can’t be more proud of this team everything we’ve done and now we just have to look ahead and see what’s in front of us and like I said we respect everyone, but we fear no one.”
This is just the second time in program history the Bulls have won an AAC title.
“I mean from the beginning we said this is the last chance we have to go to the March Madness so this team is working really, really hard and the work is not done so we’re gonna go there and fight for everything,” USF guard Carla Brito said.