By Gene Wang,
NASHVILLE—With all the pregame bluster from two undefeated teams generating so much buzz that Tuesday night’s NCAA women’s final could be one of the most compelling in the sport’s history, Connecticut instead turned the outcome into a runaway by taking over early and punishing Notre Dame for a 79-58 victory and a record ninth national championship.
The Huskies concluded their fifth perfect season by making sure Coach Geno Auriemma remained undefeated in national championship games, breaking a tie with Tennessee for all-time titles in the same state where former Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt built her dynasty.
Connecticut (40-0) won its second consecutive national championship and fourth in six seasons the day after its men did the same thanks in part to supremacy inside and crisp ball movement that yielded 25 assists on 34 field goals. The Huskies also limited their former Big East foe to 35 percent shooting, including 26 in the second half when they used an 18-4 surge to pull away.
Breanna Stewart scored a team-high 21 points for Connecticut, which owned a 52-22 margin in points in the paint and a 54-31 advantage in rebounding. The Huskies had 13 more offensive rebounds than Notre Dame.
Senior guard Kayla McBride scored 21 points for the Fighting Irish in their third loss in an NCAA final in four years. Notre Dame (37-1) has made four straight appearances in the Final Four, but its only national championship came in 2001.
The Huskies struck first by repeatedly going inside, where Notre Dame was without starting forward Natalie Achonwa. The senior tore her ACL in the region final, and Connecticut made sure to feed its front-court players who held considerable size advantage.
The strategy yielded a 22-8 lead following a 14-0 run on six layups among the Huskies’ seven field goals over that stretch. It began with Stewart’s layup that tied the score, and Stefanie Dolson (17 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists) followed with another layup that gave Connecticut the lead for the rest of the half.
Connecticut got four more layups consecutively, and when junior guard-forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scored off the glass, the lead had grown to 20-8. Notre Dame Coach Muffet McGraw called timeout with 11 minutes 30 seconds left until the break, but Stewart added another layup after collecting a pass from Moriah Jefferson.
The Fighting Irish countered with precision from beyond the arc in the final minutes until halftime. Reserve sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey’s three-pointer trimmed the margin below double digits, and McBride’s three soon after had Notre Dame within 29-23.
Three of Notre Dame’s final four field goals were three-pointers, including back-to-back makes by Jewell Loyd, prompting Auriemma to turn to his bench and holler, “It’s unbelievable how bad we are sometimes.”
But the Huskies had the final say going into the locker room when Mosqueda-Lewis gathered the rebound off Dolson’s missed long jumper and put it back for a 45-38 lead.
Intrigue to the game grew considerably when the two coaches exchanged pointed barbs in the afternoon before tip-off.
It began with McGraw’s reply to a question about what it would take to bring back the civility in the rivalry between teams that met frequently when they both were part of the Big East Conference.
“I think we’re past that point,” she said.
McGraw also said she felt tension in the room when she and Auriemma had their teams with them Saturday during an awards presentation for national coach and player of the year. McGraw was named coach of the year and Stewart player of the year ahead of McBride.
When asked for reaction to those comments and about his relationship with McGraw, Auriemma continued the verbal sparring with several incendiary remarks, including using an expletive when presented with the question if he and McGraw shared similar coaching styles.
“We’re supposed to play each other, try to beat each other’s brains in, try to win a national championship and compete like hell, Muffet and Geno, and then we’re supposed to get together afterward and go have a bottle of wine,” Auriemma said.
“That [expletive] just not going to happen, so stop asking us why it doesn’t happen.”
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