No other women’s player has won it more than twice, and only Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbaar) did it three times on the men’s side. The Huskies won three straight titles from 2002-04. She delivered on that promise by scoring 24 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in her final college game.
Advertisement
UCONN’s Big Three [senior Breanna Stewart (2016 Women’s Player of the Year, fourth-consecutive NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player Award winner), Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck] are now the only players, men or women, to win four straight titles in NCAA history.
When Connecticut plays Syracuse tonight at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN, everyone who loves sports should tune in to watch.
Stewart, Tuck and Jefferson left the game for good with 1:46 left.
Syracuse guard Alexis Peterson injured her right shoulder as she attempted to rip the ball out of Kia Nurse’s hands with 4:54 left in the game. Eventually, she got up and walked to the bench without assistance.
Breanna Stewart is a great player. Napheesa Collier restored the 20-plus-point lead and UConn cruised from there. If more people actually paid attention to the sport and understood all the hard work that went into these championship runs by UConn, they wouldn’t write off the Huskies as being “bad for women’s college basketball”.
The UConn women’s basketball team defeated OR paving their way to a record: the first women’s basketball team in NCAA history to win four national titles in a row. Plus, the strong 3-point shooting, that had been a staple in Syracuse’s stunning postseason run, went 2 of 19 beyond the arc after making 12 in the semifinal win over Washington. Stewart, Tuck and Jefferson outscored Syracuse all by themselves in the first half, playing with a confidence of three players who were used to the magnitude of this game.
At the request of her coaches, she didn’t address the issue later, and will announce her decision Wednesday.
Not only has Breanna Stewart been the nation’s top player in offensive rating this season, she has simultaneously been the top player in defensive rating. Stewart and her fellow seniors went 24-0 in NCAA Tournament games, too.
Stanford Star Nnemkadi Ogwumike is third on the list with 444 points. The UConn women’s team did just that – they came, they saw and they conquered the Syracuse Orange in the Championship game by a whopping 82-51 leaving no doubt that this ladies college team is in a category all to itself.
The seniors set the tone early holding Syracuse scoreless the first four minutes of the game.
Morgan Tuck has nine points and Jefferson chipped in with seven. UConn had more than doubled Syracuse’s 12 rebounds with 26.
Everything written about CT women’s basketball sounds like hyperbolic fluff, but it’s all true. But there was never a moment when the entire team was more excited than this one.
Other teams have navigated undefeated seasons. The other two times, 1995 and 2014, UConn won the D-I championship.
This time, the Huskies (38-0) made it look easy by methodically dissecting Syracuse’s trademark full-court pressure and vaunted zone.
After Baylor lost to Oregon State in the Elite Eight last week, coach Kim Mulkey was compelled to give her thoughts on UConn’s dominance over the last decade.
Sophomore Gabby Williams replaces injured Katie Lou Samuelson in UConn’s starting lineup.
Senior Brianna Butler arrived in the same recruiting class as Sykes and is the NCAA’s single-season record-holder for 3-pointers made (128).
Advertisement
Former Big East opponent Syracuse stood in the way of the Huskies in Tuesday night’s game in Indianapolis.
