UConn Women Win NCAA Record 71st Straight Game

HARTFORD, Conn. — Tina Charles,
Maya Moore and the latest Connecticut Huskies dynasty now has its own
place in the record books.

Charles scored 16 points and Moore
added 11 to help top-ranked Connecticut win an NCAA record 71st straight
game — a 59-44 victory over No. 6 Notre Dame on Monday night in the
semifinals of the Big East tournament.

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.

Connecticut (32-0) will face either
West Virginia or Rutgers on Tuesday night with a chance to win its 16th
Big East conference tournament championship.

Even top teams haven’t posed much of a
challenge for the Huskies during their remarkable run.

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 it 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 by Kalana 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. Greene finished the game with 15
points.

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, coach Geno Auriemma is still partial to the 2002
team that started its previous record streak. That team, which was led
by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, featured four of the first six picks in
the WNBA draft.