NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Connecticut Huskies are back in a very familiar position, undefeated and playing for a national championship.
They’ll be going for an unprecedented ninth national championship after Breanna Stewart scored 18 points and the Huskies advanced to another title game with a 75-56 victory against Stanford on Sunday night.
It wasn’t easy early, though the Huskies (39-0)did their part in setting up the highly anticipated championship showdown of undefeated teams.
They will square off against Notre Dame, an 87-61 winner over Maryland, on Tuesday night in the title game. It will be the first women’s national title game between unbeaten teams.
“It wouldn’t be any fun if you didn’t beat teams that were any good,” UConn Coach Geno Auriemma said of the matchup with Notre Dame.
“I think women’s basketball needs rivalries like this, teams that aspire to be great and want to win championships.”
Now the Huskies have joined the UConn men’s team in playing for the national title. The men play Kentucky tonight in Texas.
“I think it’s awesome,” senior guard Bria Hartley said. “Our men are excited for us, and we’re doing the same for them. All the fans in Connecticut are really proud right now. Both teams have worked hard this year. Now the time has come, and we want to make sure we finish on a good note.”
The Huskies also won their 45th consecutive game after overcoming another sluggish start.
Stewart, the Associated Press player of the year, missed her first four shots and UConn was up just 28-24 at halftime.
But Connecticut settled down and put the Cardinal away in the second half, outscoring them 47-32. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis found her shooting stroke, scoring all of her 15 points in the second half.
“I think that at times we were a little jumpy and excited,” Stewart said. “Had to settle down and get into right rhythm of the game. [We] went on a run at the end of the first half and shots started falling.”
Hartley added 13 points for UConn and Stefanie Dolson and Moriah Jefferson each finished with 10.
Stanford (33-4) lost its third national semifinal since reaching the 2010 championship against UConn, which the Huskies also won. All-American Chiney Ogwumike finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Amber Orrange scored 16 points, and Lili Thompson had 12.
“It’s been an amazing remarkable experience to have Stanford on my jersey one last time,” Ogwumike said.
Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer had promised the Cardinal wouldn’t go down easy, and her team never stopped competing. It didn’t help that the Cardinal didn’t take a free throw in the first half. The Huskies had a big edge there too (17 of 24) while Stanford was 8 of 10.
“We knew that biggest challenge for us was to score,” VanDerveer said.
“We worked hard defensively, had a lot of good stops.Their size, when they went big, their size is really disruptive. Probably more than anything, they have very skilled players, play very well together.”
Thompson, a freshman, hit 4 of her first 5 shots for 10 quick points, helping the Cardinal get off to a good start early. The Cardinal led by as much as six a couple times, the last at 22-16 with 12:32 left when Mikaela Ruef banked in a jumper just before the shot clock expired with 5:39 to go.
At a glance SUNDAY’S SEMIFINALS Notre Dame 87, Maryland 61 Connecticut 75, Stanford 56 TUESDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP All times Central Connecticut vs. Notre Dame, 7:30 p.m.
Sports, Pages 17 on 04/07/2014