Women's Tournament 2017: Final Four Scores, Championship Preview

The 2017 NCAA women's national championship game is set with Mississippi State taking on South Carolina. 

South Carolina defeated Stanford 62-53, followed by Mississippi State shocking the college basketball world with a 66-64 overtime win against Connecticut in Friday's Final Four matchups. 

Following an off day on Saturday, both teams will seek immortality at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas on Sunday. 

Matchup	Result
No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 2 Stanford	South Carolina, 62-53
No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 2 Mississippi State	Mississippi State, 66-64 (OT)

Connecticut's run of dominance over the women's college basketball world came to a stunning and abrupt end with its loss to Mississippi State. Morgan William played the role of hero for the Bulldogs, hitting the game-winning shot as time expired in overtime, captured wonderfully in this image from SB Nation:

The Huskies entered the Final Four having won 111 straight games dating back to 2014 and four straight national championships. 

Despite starting this season with those four straight national titles, the Huskies were ranked behind Notre Dame and Baylor in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll. It was the closest sign there has been over the past three years that the gap between UConn and the rest of the country was narrowing.

Head coach Geno Auriemma even discussed his doubts about this year's team being able to keep up the pace set from the previous three years as recently as Tuesday, via the Hartford Courant:

"

You know, there was a time during the first two weeks of practice when I knew we weren't going to be very good, 'cause we couldn't be very good the way we were practicing, the way our players were approaching certain things.

With two minutes left in the Florida State game, the opening game of the season, I was convinced that we got major problems; this team is going to really learn a huge lesson that they haven't had to learn up until now, and it's going to hit 'em tonight, and we'll be better off for it. If it doesn't hit 'em tonight, it's going to hit 'em against Baylor, for sure.

"

The Huskies would go on to beat Baylor and Notre Dame in the regular season, once again cementing their status as the top dog in college basketball. 

Mississippi State, in comparison to Connecticut's destruction of the competition, seemed an unlikely candidate to pull off one of the biggest shockers in tournament history. This was the Bulldogs' first-ever appearance in the Final Four in just their ninth tournament appearance. 

The two teams met in the tournament last year, with UConn coasting to a 98-38 victory in the Sweet 16. Friday provided a different story and easily the biggest win in head coach Vic Schaefer's career, dating back to his time at Sam Houston State. 

It was apparent from the outset of Friday's game that this was a different Bulldogs team. They did something this season in the first half no team did to the Huskies, per espnW:

It's been a remarkable turnaround job at Mississippi State for Schaefer. He took over the program in 2012-13 and it went 13-17, needing just two years to make the NCAA tournament and are now 34-4 after Friday's win. 

While the discussion will be all about Mississippi State's win over UConn, it won't mean anything if the Bulldogs lose in the national title game to South Carolina.

South Carolina defeated Mississippi State twice during the season, including a 59-49 victory in the SEC Championship Game. 

The next 48 hours will be a blur for Mississippi State. The upset is already the biggest sports story of 2017 and one the magnitude of which will be difficult to match for a long time.