Question of the Week:
What heretofore unbeatable records might your team better this year?

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Remarkable UConn Women Break Record With 71st Straight Win

3.08.2010

The answer, coach Geno Auriemma of record-breaking Connecticut, is a resounding yes. Auriemma posed the question to whomever would listen as his team held an uncharacteristically slim three-point halftime lead Monday.

"I said, 'C'mon, it's impossible for us to lose, right?' " Auriemma asked sarcastically before his team gave him that historic answer.

Tina Charles had 16 points and 17 rebounds as the Huskies won their record-breaking 71st straight game, a hard-fought 59-44 triumph over pesky Notre Dame in Monday's semifinals of the Big East tournament.

Connecticut (32-0) broke its own Division I women's record for consecutive victories, a mark that its predecessors from Storrs set when it won 70 in a row from 2001-03. That streak was broken in the semifinals of the Big East tournament against Villanova.

UConn will play West Virginia in Tuesday's Big East tournament championship game.

The win was marred a bit when UConn guard Caroline Doty was injured with 49.7 seconds remaining. She was down for several minutes in front of a hushed crowd until being helped to the locker room by team trainers. Doty took an apparent blow to the head, is being evaluated for concussion-like symptoms and is questionable for Tuesday's game.

"Just by the looks of it, [a concussion] might be the worst of it," Auriemma said. "We were worried it might have been worse, but that's about the worst of it."

But back to history. Auriemma, for the first time in a while, had some doubt as to whether his team would win Monday and get to that title contest.

"There's no way [we can lose]," the coach continued sarcastically. "We're going to win 97 in a row. Do you know how easy it is? Do you know? All you have to do is listen to what everybody says."

If the Huskies do win that many in a row, they will have passed John Wooden's legendary UCLA men's teams, which won 88 straight games -- the all-time record for both men and women -- from 1971-74.

Ironically, those Bruins had their streak snapped by Notre Dame on Jan. 19, 1974. These Irish could not follow in those illustrious footsteps Monday, though they gave a valiant effort.

Of course, that's all relative.

It is considered a moral victory if these Huskies are even given a challenge, something -- it can definitively be said -- they had not received this season or last. In fact, UConn has won each game in its remarkable streak by double digits.

It was unclear if UConn would continue that trend -- that is, until the second half, when it made a concerted effort to feed the ball inside to Charles, the school's all-time leader in points and rebounds. However, Tiffany Hayes and Kalana Greene -- role players -- were the ones that provided separation midway through the second.

Hayes and Greene converted consecutive layups after which they had a chances for three-point plays (they each missed the free throws). Greene's basket gave the Huskies their first double-digit lead of the game, 42-31, and after a bucket by Notre Dame, another layup in transition by Hayes pushed the lead back to 11.

"The three-point plays really killed us," Irish coach Muffet McGraw said. "The momentum change ... kind of knocked the wind out of our sails."

Greene attributed UConn's resurgence, and her own success, to defense and rebounding. The Huskies forced six of the Irish's 10 turnovers and out-rebounded them, 21-12, in the second half.

"I think we had a lot more pressure on the ball," Greene said. "We got a lot of defensive rebounds in the second half that led to transition points for us. Whenever our defense is great, we create turnovers or limit them to one shot. We get points in transition. I think that was the big key.

"Tina blocking a lot of shots in the lane and Maya tipping passes and getting steals, and that definitely led us to getting transition buckets."

The Irish, however, would not go away quietly. They lurked until the final minute but were at an arm's length for most of the second half.

The opening 20 minutes was a different story for the Huskies, who led 25-22 at the break. The low-scoring half for the normally high-powered Huskies was not lost on Auriemma.

"We put up a whopping 25 in the first half," the coach said. "If I would have told you that before the game and said, 'Hey, we are going to get 25 at halftime.' If I would have said that, you would have said, 'He's an idiot.' "

Actually, the Huskies' three-point margin was even more startling. Geno, what would I have said if you told me you'd be nursing a three-point lead at the break? Considering how UConn vanquishes even its most worthy opponents, one would have been within his or her rights to call the coach a pinhead.

Instead, congratulations are in order for one of the most dominant streaks of all-time -- does a 32.5-point margin of victory impress anyone? -- one that Auriemma admits that his team can reflect on for a short time after the Big East tournament before it's off to thinking about bigger and better things.

"Probably until we get to the NCAA tournament, there will be a little looking back for everybody," he said. "But then you've got to get back to thinking about the things that are important, you know, short-term."

Skylar Diggins scored 10 points for Notre Dame (27-5), which shot just 31.3 percent (20-of-64) in losing for the third time to UConn this season.

And if you listen to Charles, this win is no more significant than those other two regular-season triumphs over Notre Dame.

"I think this win is big because this is our second win in the postseason," she said.

There was the little matter of 71, too.

FreebNote: They beat West Virginia - 72-0 and counting - ROLL ON!