College Women's Basketball Capsules: Greene leads No. 1 UConn to 16th Big East title
HARTFORD, Conn. — UConn finally celebrated — just a little bit.
The top-ranked Huskies danced and cheered after they cruised to their 72nd straight win and 16th Big East tournament championship with a 60-32 victory over No. 9 West Virginia on Tuesday night.
It was a much more festive atmosphere than the night before when they broke their own NCAA record for consecutive wins.
"We had a lot of minature goals during the entire season," said Kalana Greene, who scored 15 points and earned most outstanding player honors of the tournament. "Every championship that’s thrown at us we want to win it. The streak can be thrown at us and if we don’t win the Big East championship it doesn’t mean anything."
The next challenge — if anything can truly be called a challenge for these Huskies — is the NCAA tournament. With six more victories, UConn will have its second consecutive national title and seventh overall.
Greene made her first seven shots and grabbed 12 rebounds. She provided the same offensive spark she’s been giving the Huskies all season.
"I thought all year long Kalana’s been really consistent," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "Whether it’s a defensive spurt, offensive spurt, or rebounding."
The Huskies have won five of the last six conference tournament titles and enter the NCAAs unbeaten for the fifth time in school history. UConn went on to win the national championship in 1995, 2002, and 2009. In 1996-97 they lost to Tennessee in the regional final. In all, 11 teams have gone through the regular season unbeaten with five of them winning the national title.
UConn (33-0) stands six wins short of becoming the first team to go through consecutive seasons unbeaten. The Huskies won 71 straight games from Nov. 9, 2001, to March 11, 2003.
The Huskies, who have won both the regular season and conference tournament title the last three years and 14 times in school history, held West Virginia to the lowest total in a Big East championship game.
"If you can hold Connecticut to 60 points with all the players they have you should be in the game," West Virginia coach Mike Carey said. "We struggled to score."
With All-Americans Maya Moore and Tina Charles having off-games, Greene and Tiffany Hayes carried the offense. Hayes finished with 15 points. Charles had 12 and Moore 10, but they combined to make just three of their first 22 shots.
UConn improved to 14-0 against top-10 opponents, winning by an average of 26.3 points.
The Huskies have now won the last 22 meetings with West Virginia, including an 80-47 rout at the XL Center on Feb. 2. In that game the Mountaineers played tough for 25 minutes before succumbing to the Huskies.
On Tuesday night, UConn once again jumped out quickly on West Virginia.
The Huskies, who have won every game during its record streak by double figures, used a 20-4 run in the first half to turn a one-point lead into a 27-10 advantage with 6:42 left. The Mountaineers wouldn’t wilt, using their tenacious defense which allowed only 51.5 points coming into the game, to stick around.
West Virginia (28-5) answered with a 18-6 spurt of its own spanning the half to close to 33-28 on Natalie Burton’s free throw with 15:32 left in the game. Liz Repella had eight points during the burst, including a 3-pointer from the top of the key that hit the front rim, bounced straight up and then in that made it 33-27 UConn.
The Huskies then went on one of their typical runs, scoring 27 of the next 29 points to end any hopes of the upset.
"We cut it to five and had a couple bad shots, and they got a couple offensive rebounds," Carey said. "Then the game got very, very physical and we’re not going to win that battle with them."
The Huskies held West Virginia without a point for nearly the final 11 minutes until a meaningless layup with 28 seconds left.
"We had breakdowns on defense, offense," said Liz Repella, who led West Virginia with 10 points. "You can’t have those breakdowns and play with UConn."
Greene had six points during the spurt, and also a nifty pass to Moore for a layup off an offensive rebound that made it 49-30 with 8:51 left.
"She’s a very critical part of our team," Moore said of Greene. "She can do a lot of different things on the court. She’s our safety net who doesn’t get the credit she deserves, but it’s great she’s being recognized for all the things she does."
Charles, who had missed seven of her first eight shots, hit three foul line jumpers and a layup during the burst.
Caroline Doty was in her customary place in the starting lineup after suffering a scary head and neck injury during the Huskies’ NCAA-record 71st straight victory Monday night. The sophomore guard was inadvertently elbowed in the head by Notre Dame’s Ashley Barlow with 50 seconds left in Monday night’s game.
Doty didn’t show any outward signs of the injury, but was ineffective in her 16 minutes, scoring just one point.
West Virginia was making only its second trip to the championship game.
"You saw what they’ve done the last three nights," said Auriemma of the Mountaineers. "DePaul’s a good offensive team, they shut Rutgers down and did essentially the same thing against us. I wouldn’t want to play them in the NCAA tournament."
Tournament Championship Games
Mid Tenn edges UALR 70-68 in OT for Sun Belt title
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — All Alysha Clark needed was the ball and a couple inches of space.
Clark’s layup with 1.8 seconds remaining in overtime gave Middle Tennessee a 70-68 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock in the Sun Belt tournament title game Tuesday. With the clock running down, the high-scoring senior made a quick, powerful move while closely guarded to give the Blue Raiders their 13th NCAA tournament bid and end a spectacular three-game stretch in dramatic fashion.
Clark finished with 48 points, setting the tournament’s single-game scoring record for a third straight day.
"We knew exactly where we were going with the basketball," Middle Tennessee coach Rick Insell said. "And I’m sure everybody in the stands did. I was going to put it in her hands, and I knew that she would make a play."
The top-seeded Trojans, who had won 21 straight games, fought back from a seven-point deficit in overtime to tie it on Channon Haywood’s two free throws with 29.4 seconds remaining. With the shot clock off, Clark actually passed out to the perimeter during her team’s final possession, but there was just enough time for her to post up again, receive an entry pass and score.
"If I don’t feel comfortable with a shot that I have or angle that I have, I’m going to kick back out and reposition myself," said Clark, the nation’s leading scorer through Sunday. "We work on that every day in practice — kicking out and relocating."
Her final shot was a typical one. At 5-foot-10, Clark can score with both hands and doesn’t need much time or space to get a shot off inside. She carried her team for lengthy stretches Tuesday and received just enough help down the stretch for second-seeded Middle Tennessee’s sixth title in seven years at this tournament.
For two days, Clark had been trading scoring records with UALR’s Chastity Reed. Clark’s 40 points in the quarterfinals Sunday set a tournament mark, which was broken the following day when Reed scored 41 in the early semifinal. Clark answered with 44 in the second semifinal.
Before the title game, a fan held a sign that said: "41 is great. But ... 44 is the record!"
Not for long it wasn’t. Clark also easily broke her own tournament record of 92 total points from last year, scoring 132 in three games this time.
Middle Tennessee was playing in its eighth straight Sun Belt title game.
UALR led 52-44 with 7:20 remaining in regulation after Reed made a shot from around the free throw line while drawing Clark’s fourth foul. Reed missed the ensuing free throw, and Clark answered with eight straight points to tie it. Brandi Brown then sank a 3-pointer — her only points of the game — to put the Blue Raiders ahead 55-52, and Clark’s two free throws pushed the lead to five.
The Trojans fought back, though. Asriel Rolfe made a 3-pointer and then a driving layup to tie it at 59, and neither team scored for the rest of regulation. Middle Tennessee’s Jackie Pickel missed from the perimeter in the final seconds of the second half.
"It was one of the best games I’ve been involved in," UALR coach Joe Foley said. "There were times that both teams could have given up."
UALR had one last chance after Clark’s final basket, but Shanika Butler’s rushed 3-pointer was well off the mark.
Butler led UALR (26-6) with 18 points, and Reed was held to 14. The Trojans will now have to wait and hope for an at-large bid to what would be their first NCAA tournament.
"Yes, I do believe that they need to be in the NCAA tournament," Insell said after the game.
The Blue Raiders (25-5) not only snapped UALR’s long winning streak, but they extended their own to 16. Middle Tennessee beat UALR by 20 in last year’s title game, but the Trojans won by the same margin when the teams played earlier this season.
Eight players — including Clark — played 45 minutes in the game.
"If you didn’t enjoy that women’s basketball game today, you better check your pulse," Insell said. "I’m proud of our team, and I’m also very proud of Little Rock’s team.
-- Noah Trister
Rotert’s 21 pts leads S.D. St. in Summit final
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Making it to the NCAA tournament wasn’t quite as easy this time for South Dakota State.
The Jackrabbits returned to the tournament Tuesday with a 79-75 overtime victory over Oral Roberts after blowing a nine-point lead late in the second half of the Summit League championship game.
The win came against an opponent that had beaten them twice in the regular season and after a rough-and-tumble season in which the Jacks lost four of their first six games and finished third in the Summit.
Even though last season was the Jacks’ first as a full-fledged Division I member, they were expected to get to the NCAAs. They rolled through Summit League play and went to the NCAAs with a 31-2 record and narrowly missed reaching the Sweet 16.
SDSU coach Aaron Johnston praised his team’s ability to bounce back after trying times this season. That’s the mark of great teams, but Johnston said it’s too early to declare the Jacks a mid-major power.
"You can look at last year’s team as kind of that Cinderella story," he said. "I know I don’t want to be a Cinderella story. I want people to look at us as a team that can compete every single year. Unless you do this a lot, you kind of get caught in the shuffle as one of those teams that has a great year and then gets forgotten about."
Kristin Rotert scored 21 points and made the game-clinching free throw with four seconds left in overtime as SDSU won its second straight Summit postseason title.
Maria Boever, the tournament MVP, added 18 points and Ketty Cornemann 17 for the Jacks (22-10), who have won 10 of their last 11 games.
"We did come in as the underdog and we knew we would have to fight," Boever said. "We’re so happy because we did fight so hard. We just didn’t give up."
Jaci Bigham scored 28 points and fellow freshman and Summit player of the year Kevi Luper added 17 for Oral Roberts (23-9). The Eagles also got 12 points from Jordan Pyle and 10 from Janae Voelker.
The Jacks had a decisive home-court advantage playing 60 miles south of their Brookings campus. With the exception of fans behind the Oral Roberts bench, the Sioux Falls Arena was painted yellow and blue, with some 5,400 fans chanting "Let’s Go Rabbits!" at every opportunity.
The Jacks routed IPFW 93-52 and Western Illinois 67-39 in the first two rounds, but this time they were going against the regular-season champion Eagles, who already had beaten them 81-72 in Brookings and 86-75 in Tulsa, Okla.
Oral Roberts, the only Summit League team in two years to beat the Jacks on South Dakota soil, turned up the pressure late in regulation and forced five straight turnovers to make up a 69-60 deficit.
"In the beginning we weren’t getting our hands on any of their passes," Luper said. "When we were getting our hands on them, you could tell they were thinking twice about their passes, and that’s when we made our run."
Pyle’s putback and Bigham’s three-point play closed the gap to 69-65, and free throws by Savanna Buck and Voelker tied it with 48 seconds left in regulation.
Oral Roberts had a chance to win it in regulation after Rotert was off the mark with a 3-pointer, but Buck missed a long jumper at the buzzer.
"We had all the momentum going," Oral Roberts coach Jerry Finkbeiner said. "That last shot Savanna Buck missed, I thought it was in there. Three-quarters of an inch, and it might have rattled in. We had multiple chances to win. It’s easier to swallow because we were there and had a chance."
The Jacks went ahead when Jen Schuttloffel made a steal and passed to Rotert for a layup.
Bigham scored all six of Oral Roberts’ points in overtime, hitting two free throws to get the Eagles within 76-75 with 12 seconds left.
Jill Young, Cornemann and Rotert combined to make five of six free throws in the last 20 seconds to hold off the Eagles, who came into the game with wins in 14 of their last 15 games.
"You look at our record and it doesn’t show it, but our team lost a lot of these close games early on," Johnston said. "This game really showed a different team."
-- Eric Olson
News & Notes
UConn wins NCAA record 71st straight game
HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Huskies didn’t celebrate after the game. Just another night’s work for coach Geno Auriemma’s latest dynasty.
After their ho-hum 59-44 win over Notre Dame put them in the championship of the Big East tournament on Monday night, the Huskies just shook hands with the Irish — same as they have after pretty much every other game during their incredible streak.
No, the Huskies weren’t all that excited about their record-setting 71st straight victory. Even though they broke an NCAA mark held by a previous UConn dynasty for most consecutive victories in women’s college basketball.
Now if UConn can extend that streak to 72 on Tuesday night against No. 9 West Virginia in the title game, maybe then Tina Charles, Maya Moore and the rest of the Huskies will get excited.
"I can’t think anything is more important than winning and playing in the Big East championship for these kids," Auriemma said.
Auriemma conceded that his team may reflect a little bit between the Big East tournament and the NCAAs.
"I want to keep the focus where it is," Auriemma said. "Wednesday, Thursday, Friday — probably until we get to the NCAA tournament may be a little bit of a look back for everybody. But then you’ve got to get back to focusing on the things that are important."
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 (32-0) are just seven wins away from a seventh national championship and becoming the first team to have back-to-back undefeated seasons.
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 its 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," he 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.
They 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."
Three of the Irish’s five losses this season have come to UConn.
--Doug Feinberg
UConn’s Caroline Doty to play in league title game
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s Caroline Doty will play in the Big East championship game Tuesday night after a scary head and neck injury during the Huskies’ NCAA-record 71st straight victory.
The school said she participated in a shootaround Tuesday morning and was cleared by the medical staff to play against No. 9 West Virginia.
The sophomore guard was inadvertently elbowed in the head by Notre Dame’s Ashley Barlow with 50 seconds left in Monday night’s game. Doty lay on the floor for a few minutes before being helped up.
The injury dampened UConn’s celebration of breaking its own NCAA record.
