Breanna Stewart scored 21 points while Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson each added 20 in their final game together at Gampel Pavilion to lead UConn to a victory over Duquesne.
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The undefeated UConn women’s basketball team took one step closer to winning a fourth consecutive National Championship Saturday with a record-setting win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs 98-38. The Huskies are back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2001.
“They’re like piranhas on a roast”, Schaefer said. “They get fast-break points and their transition game does not get enough credit”.
Texas will play UConn in the regional final. Texas, a 72-64 victor over UCLA, is the final obstacle between UConn and a ninth consecutive trip to the Final Four.
Stewart exited the game with 3:52 remaining in the third quarter with 22 points and 14 rebounds.
“Today it felt like I was playing a WNBA team”, Schaefer said. “I think that is our mindset, when we see that a team is struggling offensively, we want to see them struggle even more”.
The Hoosiers (21-12) used a 12-1 run, led by three baskets by Alexis Gassion and a pair by Amanda Cahill, to cut the score to 56-54 on a basket by Lindsay Leikem with 2:47 left in the third quarter. The Huskies were up 61-12 going into halftime with the point total two shy of the regional record for points in a half set by Texas against Louisiana-Monroe in 1984. “I was just caught up in it all”. They also made it in 2010.
UConn’s two lowest margins of victory this season were against Notre Dame and SC, by a combined 22 points, but both of those teams fell out of the tournament Friday night. “Crazy things happen in March”, Stewart said following the win.
“When you are turning the ball over against that group it is a track meet”, Schaefer said. If certain players have not brought it, he doesn’t hesitate to sit them. “We were rushing our shots against them and their success consisted of our shots not falling and their defense is very long and that kind of messed us up”. They don’t need any No. 1’s getting upset or anything like that. They have all the pieces.
Jefferson moved up to second on UConn’s all-time steals and assists list passing Jen Rizzotti in both categories. She also became the fifth player in NCAA Division I tournament history with 50 career steals.
Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart, left, goes up for a shot against Mississippi State’s Chinwe Okorie during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the regional semifinals of the women’s NCAA Tournament, Saturday, Mar… Tuck, who finished with 21 points, left soon after. This was only the Bulldogs second appearance in the Sweet 16. Maya Moore and Stewart are the only other freshmen with multiple 20-point games in UConn history.
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The Bulldogs, with one senior on the roster, had a break-out season, winning a school record 28 games and reaching the Sweet 16 for the second time in school history.
