As many of you know the Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team won the national championship tonight in a "what are you made of" style 53-47 game in San Antonio, Texas. I had the pleasure to be inside Gampel Pavillion with other members of Husky Nation.
The game started out just how everyone in Storrs, Connecticut, thought it would and the Huskies were out to a quick 5-0 lead on the Stanford Cardinal. From that point on, however, Uconn would go on to score just seven points the rest of the half. They shot just 17% in the first half and only had 12 points but managed to be down just 8 after the lowest scoring individual and collective half in championship history as well as the tying the fewest points Uconn has ever scored in a half of basketball. Frustration was all over Geno Auriemma's face, however, the mood inside Gampel Pavillion was surpringly upbeat. Nobody I talked to believed that they had seen the real Uconn team in the first half and there was no doubt that they would come out in the second half and blow Stanford away. That is exactly what happened.
Over the next 20 minutes a completely different Uconn team was on the floor whereas Stanford played just as poorly in the second half. At one point late in the second half the Huskies had scored more points in the second half alone than Stanford had in the whole game.
Maya Moore was clearly the difference in the second half and showed why she has won back to back Wade Trophies and a Naismith Award. After missing her first shot of the second half she would connect on the next five, surging Uconn to a 27-22 lead with a nifty fast break layup with 13:10 to go. From that point on the Cardinal would only manage to get as close as four during a 1:51 span that ended with about 10 minutes remaining.
With two minutes to go it looked as though Uconn would extend its record winning streak to 78 with its 78th straight victory by a double digit margin. This was not to be, however, as Stanford scored 13 points in the final minutes to pull within six. The result was never in doubt late despite some poor free throw shooting from the Huskies.
All season long sports reporters have asked the question of Geno Auriemma's record squad, "When they are pushed to a score that they are uncomfortable with and find themselves down and playing poorly, how will they respond?" Maya Moore showed tonight that this team did not get to this point by accident. They shot a miserable 17% in the first half and the best women's basketball team in the nation, and possibly ever, responded in the fashion a team of this caliber should be expected to. They had never had to do in their collegiate careers but the Uconn Huskies women's basketball team showed they had what it took to come from behind and overcome the worst statistical half in the programs storied history to beat the second best team in the nation.
So what are the Huskies made of? Heart, Determination and the best collection of talent the women's game had ever seen.
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