WATCH CHAMPIONSHIP PHOTO GALLERY
The Connecticut Huskies are perfect for the second year in a row, have a historic 78 game win streak and now a total of seven national championship titles! The Huskies defeated Stanford 53-47 in the lowest scoring national championship in women’s NCAA history.
Two time All-American Tina Charles and Kalana Greene finished their college careers on top. “We were able to experience this two times,” said an emotional Charles. “Just the hard work that we put into it and just the support we had from just everybody from the fans, from our student body back at school, just everything, I think this is for everybody and how special it is.”
Charles finishes her career as the all-time rebounder for the UConn Huskies.
It wasn’t a pretty win though, the Huskies were very cold in the first half, shooting just 17% from the field! “I was worried all year long that what exactly happened in the first half was going to happen,” said Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma.
Stanford came out with an excellent game plan and appeared to have Connecticut rattled. Nnemkadi Ogwumike’s main assignment was to guard Maya and it work, Moore had just 5 points in the first half. “I thought Stanford did a great job in the first half, just being physical, trying to jam up our cuts, not letting us kind of move where we wanted to,” said Moore about the Cardinal. “It forced us to have to work harder off the ball to get open and just being tougher with the basketball.”
But the scoring woes weren’t just for the Huskies. Jayne Appel was held scoreless in the game for the first time in her college career. She suffered sprained ankle which the trainers re-taped, but was never able to get in a scoring rhythm.
As usual, Geno found a way to motivate his team at half-time. Trailing 12-20 at the half, the Huskies began the second half with a 17-2 run to take a 29-22 lead with 12 minutes left in the game. Moore flipped the tables on the scoring woes, she dropped 18 second half points and finished with 23. Stanford shot just 27% from the field.
Maya Moore scored 54 points over the two games in this Final Four, tying her with Diana Taurasi in 2003 for fourth place on the all-time list. Moore’s 18 second half points are tied for fifth highest output in a championship game.
UConn is the first NCAA Division I women’s basketball team ever to post back-to-back undefeated seasons, and first Division I team of either gender to do so since John Wooden’s UCLA teams of 1972 and 1973.
The UConn win streak will continue to next season, if they win their first 10 games they will pass UCLA’s all time win streak.
