For the second straight season, the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team is heading to the Final Four. And for the second straight year, they will be taking on the Stanford Cardinal for the right to play in the NCAA Championship game.
Maya Moore scored 25 points to help the Huskies to an 85-64 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils in front of 4,758 at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, NJ.
The Huskies (37-0) will be looking to avenge last year’s loss to the Cardinal in the Final Four. The Sun Devils finish up the season at 26-9.
Moore, who was named the Trenton region’s most outstanding players, also had 9 rebounds and her 25 points gave her the record for most points in a season with 712 and counting. Renee Montgomery added 22 points and 4 assists while Tina Charles had 18 points and 13 rebounds. Kalana Greene rounded out the Huskies in double-digits with 10 points and 9 rebounds.
Danielle Orsillo paced the Sun Devils with 18 points. Briann January chipped in with 12 points and Sybil Dosty had 8 points and 5 rebounds.
The two teams exchanged baskets early on in the game before Charles led a 10-0 run with 8 points as she was just a force to be reckoned with in the paint. The Huskies then went into a little bit of lull as they had trouble taking care of the ball committing 5 turnovers in a span of just under 3 minutes that allowed the Sun Devils to get the lead down to 3 points at 16-13.
Arizona State got the lead down to 1 at 18-17 on a jumper from January. Montgomery picked up her third foul with 5:32 to go in the half and held a lead of 27-21 when she went to the bench.
If there was a time for the Sun Devils to make a comeback this was it but unfortunately they weren’t able to do that as the Huskies pushed the lead to 10 at 34-24 and took an 11 point lead into the locker room at 37-28 on the strength of a Greene layup with four seconds left.
The closest the Sun Devils would get to the Huskies was 8 points in the second half and the last time came on a Nia Fanaika three-pointer with 10:47 to go in the game. The Huskies then went on an 8-0 to put the game away.
Good win for the Huskies tonight but it definitely wasn’t pretty. They looked like they may have been playing too fast in the first half when they went through that bad stretch of turnovers. It was also nice to see them respond when Montgomery went to the bench with her third foul. Instead of sitting back, they kept it coming at the Sun Devils and were able to push their lead to 10 points.
Should be a great battle on Sunday in St. Louis with Stanford as they were the last team to hand the Huskies a loss.
Notes and musings:
Arizona State Sun Devils vs UConn Huskies NCAA Women’s Tournament 3.31.09 box score
The starters were Renee Montgomery, Tiffany Hayes, Kalana Greene, Maya Moore and Tina Charles.
UConn advances to the 2009 NCAA Women’s Final Four for the second consecutive season and the 10th time in the program’s history.
This is the 7th time the Huskies have gone to the NCAA Women’s Final Four this decade.
Maya Moore was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Regional. Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery were each named to the Trenton Region All-Tournament Team.
UConn senior Renee Montgomery extended her UConn record of consecutive starts to 146.
Maya Moore’s 25 points marks her eighth consecutive game with double-figure points and her 36th this season.
Tina Charles’ 18 points marks her 32nd game this season with double-figure points.
Tiffany Hayes was only the second UConn player to foul out this season over 37 games.
The Huskies are the sixth team to reach the Final Four without a loss. Of that group, the 1989-90 Louisiana Tech squad was the only team that failed to complete the perfect season.
UConn’s Big Three outscored the Sun Devils 65-64.
The Huskies shot 58.9% (33-of-56) while Arizona State shot 41.3% (26-of-63).
UConn had just 10 assists on their 33 made baskets.
The Huskies were 10-of-12 (83.3%) from the free throw line.
UConn dominated the glass holding a 45-19 advantage.
The Huskies committed 18 turnovers, 12 of them in the first half. The Sun Devils had just 9 in the game.
UConn outscored ASU 44-20 in the paint.
