{"id":11016,"date":"2010-03-09T17:17:20","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T21:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=11016"},"modified":"2015-12-14T08:43:37","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T13:43:37","slug":"womens-basketball-sets-record-with-71st-consecutive-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/03\/womens-basketball-sets-record-with-71st-consecutive-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Basketball Sets Record with 71st Consecutive Win"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Tina<\/a>
Tina Charles scores two of her 16 points as part of UConn\u2019s 71st consecutive win, an NCAA record for women\u2019s basketball. Photos by Stephen Slade <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was the kind of game many fans of the UConn women\u2019s basketball team may not have expected, or wanted to see, given the dominance and perfection they witnessed for nearly two years. It was the kind of game head coach Geno Auriemma prepares his team for each day in grueling practices, when shots won\u2019t fall and one play \u2013 a missed rebound, a tipped pass, or a three-point shot \u2013 can decide the game.<\/p>\n

In other words, Monday\u2019s third meeting this season between the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and the Huskies in the semi-finals of the Big East Championship in Hartford, was the kind of game that would make history, as the women\u2019s basketball team won its 71st consecutive game, an NCAA Division I women\u2019s record, with a 59-44 victory. The consecutive win streak is second only to the record 88 set by the legendary John Wooden\u2019s UCLA men\u2019s teams from 1971 to 1974.<\/p>\n

All-Americans Tina Charles (16 points and 17 rebounds) and Maya Moore (11 points and 10 rebounds) led the Huskies, along with Kalana Greene (15 points and 7 rebounds), to the historic win. The Huskies meet West Virginia in the Big East Championship game. It is Connecticut\u2019s sixth consecutive year in the title game and the 16th time in the past 17 years.<\/p>\n

Focus on the Immediate Goal<\/h3>\n

As wins for the 2009-10 team continued to build up during the long season, Auriemma and his student-athletes downplayed their potential date with history, insisting that their focus was only on the next opponent, the next play.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Maya<\/a>
Maya Moore shouts encouragement to her teammates during the Huskies\u2019 historic win at the XL Center in Hartford. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAny record or history doesn\u2019t mean much if we don\u2019t accomplish our next goal, which is beating Notre Dame,\u201d said Moore, after the Huskies\u2019 77-41 win over Syracuse on March 7.<\/p>\n

At halftime on Monday night, the score was 25-22 in favor of UConn, in a bruising physical battle with both teams missing shots.<\/p>\n

Auriemma has been consistent throughout the season in dismissing the focus on his team\u2019s winning streak, which began on Nov. 16, 2008, with an 82-71 win over Georgia Tech in the first game of last year\u2019s national championship season. That season was marred only by an injury to Caroline Doty, who sat out the second half of her freshman year following a knee injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many things that can go wrong, and the other team has to take advantage of it,\u201d said Auriemma. \u201cYou\u2019re one injury away from it all falling apart. I don\u2019t care about the streak. It\u2019s going to end. I don\u2019t want it to end the wrong way. I don\u2019t want it to end because we got a kid injured. I don\u2019t want it to end because somebody got in foul trouble and fouled out. I want it to end with our best guys on the floor [in] the last three minutes and somebody beats us. I\u2019ll be the first to shake their hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked on Sunday night about the Huskies\u2019 record-setting pace, Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said, \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anybody close to them. They\u2019re incredibly hard to guard, but I think what they do is play great defense. They\u2019re not a team that relies on any particular offensive person, because they can score in so many different ways. As long as they continue to play defense like they have, they\u2019ve <\/del><\/ins> got a great shot at going undefeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Double-Digit Victories<\/h3>\n
\"<p>Kalana<\/a>
Kalana Greene drives down the lane to score two of her 15 points, to help the Huskies beat Notre Dame during the Big East Championship semi-finals. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Huskies have won each of their 71 consecutive games by double digits \u2013 an NCAA record \u2013 by an average of 32.8 points per game. The smallest margin of victory during the streak was 10 points, against both Notre Dame on Feb. 22, 2009 and Rutgers on March 2, 2009. This season they are averaging a margin of victory of 35.6 points.<\/p>\n

In defeating Syracuse on Sunday, the UConn women matched the team\u2019s own winning streak of 70, which was accomplished from 2001 to 2003 during a run of three consecutive national championships, culminating in 2004 when the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams posted the only dual championship season in NCAA Division I history. The 2001-2002 team included seniors Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Tamika Williams, and Asjha Jones, and sophomore Diana Taurasi. The 2002-2003 team was led by Taurasi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s better we broke our own record. I wouldn\u2019t want to break somebody else\u2019s record,\u201d Auriemma said during a television interview with Rebecca Lobo of ESPN last night.<\/p>\n

Lobo, who led UConn to its first perfect season and a national championship in 1995, said it was fitting that the record-setting game was hard fought and required the Huskies to struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t able to make shots, but what\u2019s been consistent is they\u2019ve been great defensively every night. They\u2019ve got the toughness and resiliency to come back and play well. I think that kind of shows the character of this team as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anybody who is a basketball fan would have enjoyed watching John Wooden\u2019s teams going for their streak because it\u2019s historic,\u201d said Lobo. \u201cBut at the same time I can understand why the players don\u2019t care about it, because what\u2019s important to them is getting to the championship. I asked Kalana [Greene] when she could appreciate this, and she said after they win the national championship. For the rest of us it\u2019s fun to watch and experience and be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two Winning Teams<\/h3>\n

After the Syracuse game, Auriemma reflected on the difference between the two winning streaks.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Geno<\/a>
Head Coach Geno Auriemma watches the Huskies as they achieve their historic 71st consecutive win. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe first time we went through this, the following year [2001-02], we had to replace four All-Americans and replace them with a lot of inexperienced players. We had one great, great, great player [Taurasi] who pretty much carried our whole team,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difference this year is we had to replace one player [Renee Montgomery] who was a great player, but we had a lot more offense coming back. I think any time you can score, it makes things a lot simpler. We know we can score, but like everybody else we go through stretches where we may not. We\u2019re not perfect. You just do what you have to do that night. We know we\u2019re not going to have to depend on one person. That\u2019s the biggest difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed to compare his two record-setting teams, Auriemma did not hesitate: \u201cThe 2002 team didn\u2019t have any competition \u2026 Individually that group was better. I think that group would beat this group, but that\u2019s not important because they don\u2019t have to play each other. The second group of that streak (2002-2003) was offensively challenged. They had to compete against everybody they played every night. The difference between the second group of that 70 is significant. <\/a>This group is gifted more on the offensive end for sure, and on the defensive end it kind of transfers over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The members of the 2002 team that helped to establish UConn\u2019s consecutive winning streak record still take pride in their accomplishment, even as they salute their successors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s going to be comparisons [about which team is the best ever]. When I was in college in 2002, there were comparisons to the \u201995 team, who had gone undefeated. And even last year, with the 2009 team, they compared \u2019<\/ins><\/del>09 to 2002,\u201d Sue Bird told ESPN.com. \u201cThe bottom line is, this team is pretty dominant. And you can\u2019<\/ins><\/del>t overlook that. I think Diana [Taurasi] said it, \u2018[The 2009-10 Huskies] are definitely in the top two.\u2019<\/del> No. 2, though.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UConn women made history by continuing their winning streak with a victory over Notre Dame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1712],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-11016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athletics"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 18:29:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11016"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107079,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016\/revisions\/107079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11016"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=11016"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}