Connecticut a Cut Above in the Clutch

Detractors of defending national champion Connecticut have waited all season for the Huskies to act their age and behave like the young, inexperienced team Coach Geno Auriemma keeps claiming they are.

But the youthful Huskies have played like Big Dawgs rather than pups, which is why they continue to defend their national championship.

Seemingly on the ropes against a determined Texas team, Connecticut (36-1) rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to escape with a 71-69 victory over the Longhorns before 28,210 at the Georgia Dome.

The win enables the Huskies to renew the most popular -- and contentious -- rivalry in women’s basketball. On Tuesday they play six-time champion Tennessee, the only school with more NCAA titles than Connecticut, which has three.

For Texas, it wasn’t just that a 29-6 season and a 17-game winning streak came to an end; it was the way it happened.

The Longhorns were ahead, 66-60, with 3:14 to play, but went scoreless until only 28 seconds remained. By that time Connecticut -- led by Diana Taurasi, who scored 28 points -- had run off 11 consecutive points to go ahead, 71-66.

Jamie Carey sank a three-point shot to draw Texas within two. In the final 25 seconds the Longhorns had two chances to tie the score.

Stacy Stephens (16 points, 10 rebounds) missed a layup with 14 seconds remaining. Texas guard Nina Norman fouled Willnett Crockett with eight seconds left. Instead of sealing the game, Crockett missed both free throws. Texas got the rebound and raced downcourt, and Alisha Sare was open at the free-throw line. But the ball slipped out of her hands as she went up to shoot with one second to play, and it never got near the basket.

“What can I add to that game?” Auriemma said. “We’ve not played anybody defensively that’s as good and as physical as Texas. For our [team] to win that game, and for us to make the plays we made down the stretch, it’s pretty remarkable.”

Jody Conradt didn’t blame the fates for her team’s inability to protect its lead down the stretch.

“This is a special group of young women who probably exceeded everyone’s expectations but their own,” the Texas coach said. “We’re going to be disappointed and we’re going to hurt. But I reflect on a year ago when we lost in the Sweet 16. That was the motivator for this team to come back and show what they’re capable of. And I know this loss will be a motivator.”

Texas stayed with Connecticut in the first half, never falling behind by more than six. Taurasi got her points but the Longhorns held down the other Huskies. On offense, Stephens cleared space under the basket -- “She’s so strong you just can’t move her,” Taurasi said -- while Heather Schreiber (13 points) did damage from the outside.

And when Norman made an 18-footer as time expired to give Texas a 35-33 halftime lead, the Longhorn women could dream of accomplishing what the Longhorn men could not -- making it to the title game.

It was only the second time this season Connecticut trailed at the half. The other time was against Villanova in the Big East tournament, the only game the Huskies have lost this season.

But even when Texas extended its lead to 50-41 at the 12:25 mark of the second half, the Huskies didn’t panic.

“We didn’t get rattled,” Taurasi said. “We just said, ‘Let’s go get a couple of stops and run it back down.’ We got good shots and hit them.”