NCAA WOMEN’S EAST REGIONAL : UConn Doesn’t Let Up Against Alabama, 87-56

Alabama Coach Rick Moody said the other day that what Connecticut had been doing all season “ought to be illegal.”

He was referring to the Huskies’ running up the score on their opponents.

“They’ve got to show some mercy to some of these people,” he added.

Moody was only joking, but Thursday night he and the Alabama women’s basketball team found out first-hand what it’s like to go up against the merciless Huskies.

No. 1-ranked Connecticut, after a slow start, pulled away from Alabama and cruised to an 87-56 victory before a sellout of 8,241 at Gampel Pavilion.

With the victory, the Huskies advanced to Saturday’s East Regional final against Virginia, a 63-62 winner over Virginia Tech. They also remained the nation’s only unbeaten team at 32-0.

Alabama (22-9) tried everything it could against Connecticut. It double-teamed Rebecca Lobo on the inside, but that left guard Jennifer Rizzotti open on the outside. Rizzotti, a junior, scored 12 of the Huskies’ first 13 points. She went on to score a game- and season-high 24 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists.

“I pretty much go with the flow of how the game is going,” Rizzotti said. “Tonight they concentrated too much on the inside game. Tonight was one of those nights.”

Lobo, a 6-foot-4 senior, scored 10 points during a 19-0 first-half run and finished with 19. Jamelle Elliott had 15 points and 14 rebounds.

Virginia 63, Louisiana Tech 62--Sophomore guard Tora Suber led a second-half charge and scored on a short jumper with 3.6 seconds to play to lift the Cavaliers past the Techsters.

“I just tried to get it up court as quickly as I could because time was running off the clock,” Suber said of the game-winning shot. “Then (Kendra Neal) dropped back in the lane and I tried to hesitate and then go back to the basket and I just put it up, and ‘Bam!’ it went in.”

Suber, who scored all 15 of her points in the second half, also made a layup that brought the Cavaliers (27-4) to within 62-61 with 26 seconds to play.

Louisiana Tech (28-5) had opened a 30-20 halftime lead, but its pressure defense faltered in the second half, during which the Cavaliers shot 55.6%

Vickie Johnson, who missed a desperation shot at the buzzer, led Louisiana Tech with 21 points and 10 rebounds.