After falling to the UConn Huskies women's basketball team last Monday night on their Senior Night, the Louisville Cardinals said they would be out for retribution the next time the two teams met.
As we all thought, that next matchup would come in finals of the American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament. And let's just say, the Cardinals didn't exact revenge. They really didn't even come close.
UConn got out of the gates quickly with the first eight points and never looked back in a 72-52 win over Louisville in front of 8,034 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT to win the inaugural AAC Tournament and earn an automatic NCAA bid on Monday night.
The Huskies will enter the NCAA Tournament at 34-0 while Louisville will wait to see if they'll be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed after finishing at 30-4. Three of those four losses were to UConn.
Breanna Stewart, who picked up AAC Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament award, had a great game with 20 points, nine rebounds, six assists, four blocked shots and two steals. Bria Hartley added 16 points and six assists while Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had 13 points.
Stefanie Dolson rounded out the Huskies in double digits with a double-double of 10 points and a season-high 16 rebounds.
Shoni Schimmel paced the Cardinals with 20 points and had seven rebounds. Asia Taylor added seven points and eight rebounds while Jude Schimmel and Tia Gibbs both had six points.
After UConn got out to that early lead, the Cardinals battled back to make it 13-8. The Huskies countered with a 14-2 run to go up by 17 points but their was no quit in Louisville as they went on a 10-1 run of their own to cut the lead back to eight.
Apparently Stewart had seen enough of Louisville being close as her old fashioned three point play kicked off a 12-2 run to close out the half with UConn enjoying an 18 point lead.
The Cardinals never really threatened the Huskies in the second half.
There's the real possibility that these two teams could meet up in the NCAA Regionals if Louisville isn't given a No. 1 seed because of one of the regionals will be on the Cardinals home court at the KFC Yum! Center. We all know Geno Auriemma doesn't want this and I'm sure Jeff Walz won't either.
Hopefully, the NCAA will either give the Cardinals a No. 1 seed or send UConn to a different bracket. It would be better for the game of women's basketball if that were to happen.
Both teams will found out their destination next Monday (3/17) during the NCAA Selection Show.
UConn Huskies vs Louisville Cardinals AAC Tournament Finals 3/10/14 box score
Here are the postgame quotes from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma and Louisville head coach Jeff Walz.
Here are UConn's postgame notes as well as Louisville's.
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photo credit: the american; cloe poisson – hartford courant
