Big East Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament Semifinals Report

By Ann K. Miller: SPM CT Writer
Posted Tuesday, March 11, 2008

ABOVE: Connecticut's Tina Charles battles for space with Pittsburgh's Marcedes Walker. BELOW: Louisville's Angel McCoughtry struggles to steal the ball from West Virginia's Meg Bulger. Photos by Tara Polen.

HARTFORD, Conn. - The University of Connecticut Huskies, ranked #1 in the Big East and in the nation, faced the fifth-seeded University of Pittsburgh Panthers in the first or two BIGEAST conference tournament semifinals tonight at the XL Center.

UConn -- 30-1 over-all and 15-1 in conference play -- last played Pitt on February 17th when the Panthers were ranked #18 in the country. UConn won handily on Pittsburgh's home court, 90-64.

The Huskies entered tonight’s game riding a nine-game winning streak, their last and only loss coming at the hands of Rutgers on January 5th, 71-73. Rutgers was bounced out of the Big East tournament last night by Louisville, so there is no hope of a rematch of last year’s tournament final.

Pitt made it to the semifinals by beating Villanova on Saturday and Notre Dame on Sunday. The Irish were the highest-ranked team that Pitt has ever beaten. This year is only the second time in Pitt history that the team won two games at the Big East tournament; the last time they did so was in 1996.

Pitt was not yet destined to win that elusive third game this year either, as the Huskies poured it on in the first half. Although Connecticut fumbled and bumbled their way through the second half -- outscoring the Panthers by only five points -- they still came away with a 27-point victory, 74-47.

The Huskies did the bulk of their damage against Pitt in the first half. UConn’s Maya Moore scored a layup four seconds into the game and the Huskies led from that point on. They were up 20-7 with 9:08 left in the first, with sophomore center Tina Charles and junior guard Renee Montgomery leading the charge

Pitt, on the other hand, was pressured by UConn’s defense into turning the ball over nine times in the first, and the Huskies converted the errors for 11 points.

Panthers center Marcedes Walker was effective early in the half until Charles and sophomore forward Kaili McLaren started double-teaming her down low. Walker was held to only five points for the half and finished the game with only 10. She had been her team’s high scorer in their two previous tournament games.

Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma was pleased with his team’s defense in the first half, but foresaw problems ahead with the offense.

“When you are playing that great on the defensive end you have to capitalize on the offensive end,” he said after the game. “We had nine possessions in the first half and we only came out with five points ... you have to project ahead, and do you really want to be in that position when it's NCAA time?”

Now coming off the bench, UConn, senior forward Charde Houston pumped in seven points -- a total which would have been higher if she hadn't gone an abysmal 1-for-5 from the free-throw line, demonstrating Auriemma's point about failing to capitalize on scoring opportunities.

By halftime the Huskies had doubled-up on the Panthers, 44-22.

Coach Agnus Berenato admitted that both she and her staff knew that the game was virtually over at that point; there was no coming back from a deficit that large against a team like Connecticut. So she decided to turn the Panthers' lemon of a first half into lemonade.

“We started the second half 0-0, and it ended 30-25 ... The kids never looked at the scoreboard. For us, we had to practice for the NCAA's. We used the second half as an unbelievable practice against the best team in the nation.“

The Huskies also played the second half as if practicing -- but that was not purposeful. UConn was flat, made poor decisions, and was generally careless with their ball-handling. Pitt applied defensive pressure on the passers and UConn turned the ball over 17 times in the second half, giving Pitt 11 points off turnovers.

Freshman Big East Player of the Year Maya Moore had to sit for most of the game as she got into early foul trouble -- and then her coach benched her for not taking advantage of shooting opportunities. Moore played only 23 minutes and was removed from the game for good at the 4:27 mark. Her 31-game streak of double-digit scoring came to an end as she finished with only seven points on the night. Instead of surpassing Diana Taurasi's scoring streak, she remains tied with the former Husky great and All-American.

Auriemma criticized Moore’s play after the game, saying she had “...too much ability to become just a three-point shooter now. No matter how good you are now, there are still a lot of things you have to learn about this game. You can’t always play like a senior when you are a freshman. Some nights you are going to play like a freshman, and tonight was one of those nights.”

At the 3:57 media timeout Auriemma thought that his team would take over, finish strong and go to the locker room “on a real high.” Instead, UConn failed to score while Pitt scored every time they laid their hands on the ball. “We’re better off when I don’t talk to the team,” he said, referring to his apparently failed pep-talk in the timeout.

He was pleased with McLaren’s continued contributions in the assists department.

“Tina Charles hasn’t gotten this many layups all year -- until Kaili started playing regularly and earlier in the game,” Auriemma said, singing McLaren’s praises. For the third-straight game the sophomore forward led the team in assists, with five on the night.
Charles led all scorers with 21 points and added nine rebounds.

Freshman point guard Lorin Dixon enjoyed a stand-out night. She has been encouraged by her coach to shoot more, and she used her speed and small stature to blaze to the hoop, maneuvering around PItt's post defense. She ended the night with six points and received one of the crowd's biggest ovations for her efforts.

Shavonte Zellous, Pitt’s redshirt junior, scored 11 points. Walker led Pitt with 10 rebounds.

Pitt, playing for the experience, did a good job in the second half. Berenato is sure that they will look back on the experience of playing in the semifinals, and playing against the #1 team in the nation, with pride.

“We are really proud to be in the semifinals at the Big East. There are a lot of teams across the country sitting home right now. I’m really proud of my team,” Berenato said.

GAME TWO: #7 Louisville Upsets Again, This Time #3 West Virginia (14/18)

West Virginia entered tonight’s game fresh off their lopsided 64-42 win over #11 seed University of South Florida Sunday night. The Mountaineers were 24-6 overall and 12-4 in the Big East, including a 78-70 win over Louisville just 10 days ago on March 1st.

Louisville had survived a one-point thriller over #2 seed Rutgers (4/5) on Sunday, 57-56, to advance to Monday night’s semifinal. They came into tonight’s game with a #23 AP ranking based on that win.

Louisville took an early lead in the first half and played with much more enthusiasm and speed than West Virginia. The Mountaineers looked lifeless and slow. They attempted a slew of 3-pointers that did not fall, despite their season average 45.5 percent shooting from behind the arc.

The Cardinals did a good job of containing Mountaineers' center and high-scorer Olayinka Sanni. They also won the battle of the boards, hauling in 38 rebounds (17 offensive) to West Virginia’s 23.

Mountaineers senior guard Meg Bulger got into early foul trouble and had to sit for eight minutes in the first half.

The Cardinals got 24 points from their star, last year's Big East Player of the Year Angel McCoughtry, but it was sophomore guard Brandie Radde who hit two successive 3-pointers to really help her team pull away from West Virginia. The Cardinals led by as many as 21 in the first half, and went into the locker room up by 20, 41-21.

Senior guard LaQuita Owens' 15 points led a Mountaineer comeback in the second, and West Virginia pulled within five points -- to 62-57 -- on her 3-pointer with 2:26 left on the clock.

Junior forward Candyce Bingham hit two free throws for Louisville and McCoughtry followed with a 3-pointer at the 1:15 mark to put the score out of reach. West Virginia attempted to stop the clock by fouling, to no avail. The Cardinals celebrated their second upset in as many days, 67-60.

McCoughtry led all players with 24. Owens was right behind her with 23 for West Virginia.

Bingham had 10 rebounds and senior Patrika Barlow had ten assists for the Cardinals.

Louisville has now won 10 of its last 11 games.

The Connecticut Huskies remained at the XL Center to watch the Louisville-West Virginia matchup.

The Cardinals play an aggressive, up-tempo type of game, very similar to the Huskies. They have a go-to player in McCoughtry, just as UConn has had in Maya Moore.

Auriemma predicted that Moore would not play as poorly two nights in a row. “I’m working on getting her real pissy for tomorrow night’s game,” he said, “and I think it’s working.”

As for Louisville, they are feeling really confident after defeating higher-ranked teams in back-to-back games.

"We're not going to back down from UConn," McCoughtry said. "I think a lot of teams are scared of just the name alone. We're not going to do that."

The BIGEAST Conference title game will be played Tuesday night at 7pm and will air nationally on ESPN2.

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