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USF women end best regular season ever with loss to No. 1 UConn
- Updated: March 4, 2015
If all the seeds hold true in the upcoming American Athletic Conference women’s tournament, USF will get another crack at its daunting New England nemesis in less than a week.
In the wake of Monday night’s humbling proceedings, some fans may deem that cruel bracketology. For the Bulls, it’s consolation.
“Hopefully we play them two more times,” junior guard Courtney Williams said.
Before their biggest home crowd of the season (5,565), the Bulls (24-6, 15-3) outscored top-ranked Connecticut in the second half but failed to neutralize the Huskies’ 3-point barrage or their own self-infliction early. The result was an 88-65 UConn triumph on USF’s senior night.
By Huskies standards, it was competitive. UConn’s 23-point victory margin was its smallest — by far — in AAC play this season. The reigning national champions went more than four minutes without a point in the second half as USF trimmed its deficit to 17 with 9:44 to play.
“I thought we came out strong (in the second half) and we got up 30, and we kind of … I think we wanted to take it easy for a while, and they’re really a good team,” said UConn coach Geno Auriemma, whose club was outscored 35-34 after intermission.
“There are some teams we play, and they really don’t have the people or the coaching to keep up with us. But these guys are good.”
Just not good enough to give the nation’s best team (29-1, 18-0) one extra possession after another.
UConn went 7-for-13 from the 3-point line in the first half and converted nine Bulls turnovers into 20 points. Six-foot senior Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (18 points) hit three of her four tries in the first half, while 6-4 junior Breanna Stewart flourished against a smaller Bulls lineup designed for quickness.
Stewart (29 points, 11 rebounds, seven blocks) scored 17 by halftime.
“She was unbelievable tonight,” Auriemma said. “And they were pretty physical on her, too.”
The Bulls’ second-half surge was sparked in part by Williams (26 points), who became the second player in school history to eclipse 600 points in a season. Williams scored six during a 17-4 second-half run that also featured two 3-pointers by senior guard (and Boca Ciega alumnus) Tamara Taylor.
But UConn answered with a 13-2 run to seal things.
“I was very pleased at how our kids responded in the second half, where we just kept coming at ’em and kept fighting. It wasn’t like we were playing against their second unit,” Bulls coach Jose Fernandez said.
“We’ll come back (today) and we’ve got to get better because, yeah, we want to see ’em on Monday (in the AAC final), and if we want to finish this season here in Tampa (at the Women’s Final Four), we’re gonna have to play ’em a fourth time.”
