{"id":12256,"date":"2010-04-06T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-06T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=12256"},"modified":"2010-04-07T08:54:57","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T12:54:57","slug":"womens-basketball-to-play-for-championship-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/04\/womens-basketball-to-play-for-championship-tonight\/","title":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s Basketball to Play for Championship Tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12255\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12255\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/huskydog2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-12255 img-responsive lazyload\" title=\"Husky Dog Logo Large\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/huskydog2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"&lt;p&gt;The Husky mascot is a rallying point for fans of UConn athletics.&lt;\/p&gt;\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12255\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two years ago today in the semifinals of the NCAA women\u2019s basketball championship, Stanford handed the Huskies only their second loss of the 2007-08 season. In the two seasons since that night in Tampa, Fla., UConn has marched through 77 consecutive games without a loss, setting NCAA records by vanquishing the opposition by at least 10 points in each game.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight in San Antonio, Texas, the Huskies can once again make history, if they defeat Stanford for the second time this year to win their seventh NCAA title and complete back-to-back seasons without a loss \u2013 something no other women\u2019s team has accomplished.<\/p>\n<p>When Stanford arrived at the XL Center in Hartford last Dec. 23, it was a battle between No. 1 and No. 2. In that game, UConn was behind 44-42 early in the second half before senior Kalana Greene and All-American junior Maya Moore began a 30-6 run to secure the Huskies\u2019 49th consecutive win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think this is a great game for us to play. We were really excited to be in it, and this will really help us for the rest of our season,\u201d Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said after that game, the team\u2019s only loss this season.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, after beating Oklahoma 73-66, when she was asked what her team would bring to tonight\u2019s championship game, VanDerveer said, \u201cI think our team will bring confidence, knowing that we\u2019ve improve a lot \u2026 I think our team will be excited.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked by reporters if Stanford\u2019s close game against Xavier in the quarterfinal game and fending off a late surge by Oklahoma in the semifinal will help the Cardinal team in the championship game, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said, \u201cSometimes when you get a second life as a team, you tend to make the most of it if you&#8217;re a really good team. And I think they&#8217;re a really good team. I don&#8217;t think it hurts them or helps them. I don&#8217;t think it hurts or helps us what&#8217;s happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As they have for the duration of their historic season, the Huskies said they remain focused on one goal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know they&#8217;re a very good team and we&#8217;re just going to play and have fun with it. The streak is irrelevant right now,\u201d said sophomore Tiffany Hayes. \u201cWe&#8217;re here to do one thing and one thing only, and that&#8217;s win a national championship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>UConn will be led tonight by Moore, who won the 2009-10 State Farm Wade Trophy as greatest player in women\u2019s basketball, who not only excels athletically but serves as a role model both on and off the court; and senior All-American Tina Charles, who was named as 2009-10 Player of the Year by the Associated Press. The game begins at 8:30 p.m. (ET).<\/p>\n<p>For more information, go to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uconnhuskies.com\/\">Athletics website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Huskies face history in their try for back-to-back perfection.<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-12256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 00:57:52","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\/12256","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=12256"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12269,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12256\/revisions\/12269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12256"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=12256"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}