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UConn wins NCAA record 71st straight game
By Doug Feinberg
March 8, 2010
HARTFORD, Conn. —The top-ranked Connecticut Huskies made women’s college basketball history Monday night—not that you would have known it by watching them.
Tina Charles scored 16 points and Maya Moore added 11 to help UConn win an NCAA record 71st straight game, a 59-44 victory over No. 6 Notre Dame in the semifinals of the Big East tournament.
The Huskies didn’t gloat, though. They didn’t even celebrate. Just another night’s work for coach Geno Auriemma’s latest dynasty.
At the final horn they just shook hands with the Irish—the way they have with opponents after nearly every other game during their incredible streak.
“I can’t think anything is more important than winning and playing in the Big East championship for these kids,” Auriemma said.
UConn surpassed its own mark set from Nov. 9, 2001, to March 11, 2003. Unlike that amazing run, which ended in a loss in the Big East conference tournament semifinals to Villanova, this Huskies team has thoroughly dominated its opponents in every game, winning all of them by double digits.
“After the season, the last game we play we can look back and see what we’ve done,” said Kalana Greene, who scored 15 points. “You don’t want to celebrate about wins. We don’t plan on our season being over any time soon.”
The Huskies are focused on bigger goals—not just winning a 16th Big East conference championship but also a seventh national title. Connecticut (32-0) will face No. 9 West Virginia, the second seed in the tournament, on Tuesday night for the league championship.
But even top teams haven’t posed much of a challenge for the Huskies since they beat Georgia Tech to start this run on Nov. 16, 2008.
With Monday’s win over Notre Dame (27-5), UConn improved to 13-0 against top-10 opponents, winning by an average of 26.2 points. Even second-ranked Stanford lost by 12 when the teams met in late December.
UConn has rarely even trailed during its streak. The Huskies have been behind for a total 86 minutes in the 71 games. It’s been even more uncommon for UConn to be down in the second half—only facing a deficit three times after intermission. None of those scares lasted long. There hasn’t been a need for any late-game rallies or last-second shots by the Huskies.
Notre Dame kept this one close for a half.
UConn only led 25-22 at the break—its lowest scoring output in nearly three years. The Huskies then asserted themselves, led be Greene.
The senior hit just one of eight shots in the first 20 minutes, but scored the first four points of a decisive 13-4 run that gave UConn a 49-35 lead with 9:00 left. Moore’s deep 3-pointer capped the spurt.
Notre Dame, which was led by Skylar Diggins’ 10 points, was only able to close to 10.
Even with the incredible numbers that this team has put up, Auriemma is still partial to the 2002 team that started the previous record streak. Those Huskies, led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, featured four of the first six picks in the WNBA draft.
“I think that group would beat this group,” Auriemma said. “But that’s not important because they’ll never have to play each other.”
Bird and Ashja Jones, who also played on the 2002 team, were in the XL Center for the quarterfinals on Sunday.
The mood Monday was tempered when Huskies guard Caroline Doty caught an elbow from Ashley Barlow in the head with a minute left. She was on the ground with the training staff huddled around her for a few minutes before she woozily got up.
“She may have a concussion, we’re not sure,” Auriemma said. “We’ll evaluate her. If she has a concussion she’s not playing tomorrow.”
Connecticut had already beaten Notre Dame twice during the regular season— including a 25-point win in South Bend seven days ago. But the Irish have a history of ending notable winning streaks.
Notre Dame stopped Oklahoma’s 47-game winning streak in football in the 1950s, UCLA’s 88-game winning streak in men’s basketball in the 1970s and North Carolina’s 92-game winning streak in women’s soccer in the 1990s.
For 20 minutes it looked as if Notre Dame might have some of that luck. It was a sloppy first half as neither team could put together a sustained run. The Huskies took their biggest lead of the half on Doty’s 3-pointer with 8:37 left that made it 19-14. Notre Dame answered scoring six of the next eight points to close within one.
The Irish had plenty of chances to take the lead, but couldn’t get over the hump.
“We got embarrassed the first two games and wanted to play to our potential today,”
said Diggins, who scored all her points in the first half. “We had little lapses. They are a great team and we know that.”
Everybody else does, too.
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No. 9 WVU beats Rutgers 56-49 in Big East semis
By Pat Eaton-Robb
March 8, 2010
HARTFORD, Conn. — West Virginia coach Mike Carey was happy to beat Rutgers in the Big East semifinals. His goal for the finals: just compete with top-ranked Connecticut.
Sarah Miles scored 18 points and Asya Bussie added 10 to lead the ninth-ranked Mountaineers (28-4) over the Scarlet Knights 56-49 on Monday night.
Khadijah Rushdan led Rutgers (19-14) with 12 points and Monique Oliver had 11.
West Virginia’s win sets up a matchup between the tournament’s top seeds. The Huskies beat No. 6 Notre Dame 59-44 in the first semifinal, recording an NCAA record 71st straight win.
The trip to the finals is the Mountaineers’ first since they lost to UConn 50-44 in 2006.
“I told the girls after the game, we’re going to come tomorrow night to compete, we’re not coming to just show up,” Carey said. “As long as our girls compete and play hard, I’m going to be satisfied with that, win or lose.”
Monday’s battle between two of the leagues top defensive teams lived up to its billing.
Both West Virginia and Rutgers shot just over 36 percent from the field and combined for 33 turnovers, 18 by Rutgers.
The game was tied at halftime, but the Mountaineers used a 9-0 run over five minutes in the second half to go up 38-31 lead and a 12-3 run to push that to 52-40 with 6 1/2 minutes left.
Rutgers responded with a trapping press, and cut the deficit to six points twice. A free throw by Monique Oliver with 33.5 seconds left made it 55-49.
Rushdan missed a jump shot that would have cut the lead to four, and Miles hit a free throw for the game’s final point.
“We were just trying to get the ball to the middle and break the press and slow it down, because we did have the lead,” Miles said.
Rutgers led early, before a pair of baskets from Miles, including a 3-pointer, sparked a 9-0 run that put the Mountaineers up 15-8 midway through the first half.
It was just 19-10 when Madina Ali converted a three-point play with just over seven minutes left.
The Mountaineers scored just one more field goal in the half, and didn’t score another point until Ali hit two foul shots with 52 seconds left.
In between, Rutgers went on a 11-0 run, sparked by a 3-pointer from Brittany Ray.
The teams went into halftime tied at 25.
West Virginia has held 26 of its 32 opponents to fewer than 60 points, and dropped Rutgers to 2-11 this season against ranked teams.
But a four-game winning streak, including victories over Cincinnati and No. 13 Georgetown in this tournament, might be enough to get the Scarlet Knights a bid to the NCAA tournament.
“I think we picked it up, as coach says, better late than never,” Rushdan said. “Although it took us 31 games to get here, we really made a good run. I believe a lot of people doubted us and didn’t believe that we could actually get this far.” The 14 losses would tie the most for any team with an at-large bid.
C. Vivian Stringer has said the Scarlet Knights will not accept a bid to the WNIT if they don’t get invited to the NCAAs.
This was the 50th meeting between the two schools. Rutgers leads the series 38-12, but is 6-6 against West Virginia since Carey became coach.
West Virginia also won the first meeting between the two teams this season, 55-51 on Feb. 16. in Morgantown.
Tuesday’s final will be the 11th between the Big East’s top two seeds, which have split the previous 10.
Connecticut beat West Virginia 80-47 at the XL Center on Feb. 2. Guard Liz Repella said they know they have to play with a bit more intensity to prevent another blowout on Tuesday.
“We played them good for 25 minutes, and you can’t play good for 25 minutes against UConn and expect to win or even keep it close,” she said.
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