Gene Wang / The Washington Post.
TAMPA, Fla. — The Connecticut women’s basketball team parlayed a decisive closing kick with another stifling defensive performance when it mattered most to win its third straight national championship and 10th in program history, pulling away from Notre Dame, 63-53, Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.
The Huskies (38-1), the NCAA tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, allowed just one field goal over the final 5 minutes 28 seconds, and senior forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis provided the Huskies’ final seven points to draw Coach Geno Auriemma even with the legendary John Wooden for most national championships in college basketball, men or women.
Mosqueda-Lewis finished with a game-high 15 points, as did point guard Moriah Jefferson, who added five assists, four steals and three rebounds. Sophomore forward Morgan Tuck chipped in 12 points, seven assists and five rebounds on an evening when the Huskies trailed for just 2:03 before an announced crowd of 19,810.
Junior forward Breanna Stewart (eight points, 15 rebounds, four blocks) was named Final Four most outstanding player for the third time in a row, a first in NCAA history. The only other Huskies player to win three such awards overall was Diana Taurasi, who also owns three national championships and is a nine-time WNBA first-team selection with three WNBA titles.
“Obviously it’s incredibly rewarding to be able to do what we did,” Auriemma said on the postgame dais while sitting next to Stewart, Mosqueda-Lewis and Jefferson. “It was really hard to do it. We knew playing Notre Dame was going to be really difficult, and it was everything that we thought it was going to be, but these guys made some plays in the second half that kind of showed our true character.”
Connecticut won its 37th consecutive game and finished with an average scoring margin of nearly 33 points in this NCAA tournament. The only time it did not win by at least 14 points during the regular season was in an 88-86 loss to Stanford in overtime Nov. 17 in Palo Alto, California.
Notre Dame (36-3) got 14 points, all in the second half, from Brianna Turner on 7-for-9 shooting and 12 by junior guard Jewell Loyd.
Loyd, a first-team all-American, missed 14 of 18 field goal attempts amid a sloppy ball security from the Fighting Irish, who committed 17 turnovers that resulted in 15 points for Connecticut. The Irish, the top seed in the Oklahoma City Region, were held to just 33 percent shooting.
“We were a little tight during the game,” Notre Dame Coach Muffet McGraw said. “I really thought we had nothing to lose. We would come out real loose, and we were the opposite. It was disappointing to see. I don’t know why. I mean they wanted to win and put too much pressure on themselves.”
Notre Dame’s Michaela Mabrey hit a 3-pointer to start the second half and cut the Huskies’ lead to five, but Connecticut scored the next seven points. Kia Nurse made two foul shots to start the run, and Tuck collected an offensive rebound, scored and was fouled. The bonus free throw stretched the lead to 10, and Nurse’s driving layup made it 38-26 with 17:19 left in regulation.
McGraw called a timeout three seconds later, and her players responded by scoring six consecutive points, the first four of which came from Turner. The heralded freshman forward who sat out a 76-58 loss to Connecticut on Dec. 6 with a sore shoulder made a layup and got a putback to fall, and the deficit was down to 38-32 when Loyd sank two foul shots.
Turner then scored eight straight points to draw the Fighting Irish within 54-48 with 6:30 to play. Two of those field goals came on layups, and Turner banked in the last basket with the shot clock about to expire. But momentum swung back to Connecticut for good courtesy of Mosqueda-Lewis, who scored five quick points via a 3-pointer and long jumper for a 61-50 lead with 4:08 to go.
The Huskies withstood a brief scare in the first half when Stewart turned her left ankle. She remained on the court for a short time grimacing before getting up on her own and jogging to the bench where trainers began attending to the two-time national player of the year with 8:04 to play until intermission.
Huskies fans breathed a sigh of relief when Stewart hopped out of her seat and went to the scorer’s table to sub into the game less than two minutes later and the lead down to three. She immediately collected a defensive rebound, and Connecticut got Tuck’s 3-pointer to push the advantage back to two possessions with 6:15 to go.
“It’s really surreal,” Stewart said. “I haven’t had a chance to think about the fact that I’ve won three national championships, but I said I wanted to win four, and you can’t win four without winning three.”
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United States – North America – Connecticut – John Wooden – Geno Auriemma – Diana Taurasi
UConn holds off Notre Dame, wins third straight NCAA women's title - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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