Connecticut Is BIG EAST Champion Yet Again

By Ann K. Miller: SPM CT Writer
Posted Wednesday, March 12, 2008

ABOVE: Connecticut players show off their new championship t-shirts and caps for the media. BELOW: Angel McCoughtry and Charde Houston. Photos by Tara Polen.

GAME PHOTO GALLERY

AWARDS PRESENTATION PHOTO GALLERY

 

Hartford, Conn. - In a game that began as a blow-out -- but ended as a nail-biter -- the University of Connecticut Huskies held on to emerge as the BIG EAST Conference Champions over the University of Louisville Cardinals, 65-59. Almost 10,000 fans were in attendance for the tournament Finals Tuesday night at downtown Hartford’s XL center.

The Huskies came into the game ranked number one in the country with a 32-1 record and a wealth of experience playing in the championship game of the tournament, having won 13 BIG EAST championships in the program’s history. The Huskies were also looking to claim both the BIG EAST regular season and tournament titles for the first time since the 2002 season.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, were playing for the championship for the first time in the school’s history. This was a big weekend for the Cardinals. First they knocked off last year's tournament champions -- #4 Rutgers -- on Sunday. On Monday they were rewarded with a new AP ranking of #23 and proceeded to eliminated #16 West Virginia in the semifinals on Monday night.

The Huskies and the Cardinals met only once in the regular season with UConn winning that contest 92-71 at Louisville on January 12th.

This game, albeit not the “grudge match” that another UConn vs. Rutgers Final would have been, still had plenty of elements of drama.

Tonight’s game provided fans the opportunity to see Louisville great, junior forward Angel McCoughtry, who leads the league in scoring (757 points) and steals (137). McCoughtry was a hot contender for the league’s Player of the Year award, having been named the PreSeason Player of the Year, but she lost out to UConn’s Maya Moore, who became the first freshman in league history to win the award.

Therein lies the “story within the story” of this game. Which of these two great players -- McCoughty or Moore -- would come through for her team and take home the trophy?

Would McCoughtry be able to continue her dominating performance displayed thus far in the tournament? She had 25 points in Saturday’s victory over St. John’s, 20 points against Rutgers and 24 in the West Virginia win. Against St. John's on Saturday McCoughtry got in early foul trouble and had to sit for almost half the game, yet she managed to score her 25 points in only 21 minutes of play.

Moore had a quiet tournament coming into Tuesday night’s game. She had more rebounds (16) than points (15) in Sunday’s game against DePaul. In Monday night’s game, early foul trouble forced her to sit on the bench and she appeared unwilling to go to the hoop to shoot, settling instead for three-point attempts. Head coach Geno Auriemma took her out of the game with 4:27 left, having put only seven points on the board. This ended her streak of 31 consecutive games of scoring in double figures.

Moore was on the receiving end of a hard foul by Rutgers' Epiphanny Prince In the waning moments of UConn’s final regular-season game against the Scarlet Knights a week ago. Perhaps this had made her leery about mixing it up under the hoop as she hurt her back on the play.

The game was fast-paced from the opening tip. Louisville scored first on a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Brandie Radde. UConn answered two minutes into the game with a 3-pointer from Moore.

The score was close for the first five minutes of the half, and then UConn ran a string of seven unanswered points and was up 18-8 by the 12:40 mark.

Both teams had trouble getting the ball to fall for extended periods. McCoughtry and her teammate, center Chauntise Wright, got into early foul trouble – with two and three fouls respectively. McCoughtry remained in the game, but Wright had to sit at the 5:33 mark.

UConn was able to capitalize when Wright went to the bench -- and they were up by 15 points at the half, 34-19.

In the locker room, Louisville head coach Jeff Walz gave his team a kind of ultimatum.

"If they wanted to pack it in -- we can get on the bus and have everyone wondering where we were in the second half.”

His team obviously chose to stay and battle it out, and his technique proved effective.

In the second half the Huskies failed to run their offense successfully and instead were rushing shots and allowing Louisville’s defense to harass them into making turnovers – eight in the stanza.

Louisville began chipping away at the Huskie’s lead -- mainly thanks to McCoughtry's scoring. She had 13 of her 22 points in the second half, and by the 9:48 mark Louisville had cut the Husky lead to single digits at 42-34.

The Huskies were having great difficulty running their high-low game which had been their bread and butter throughout the tournament. This time Louisville was sending two and three players to the middle to clog up the passing lanes. UConn forward Kaili McClaren, who had been successful getting the ball down low to center Tina Charles in the previous two games, was stymied by the defense. This led to some turnovers, rushed shots and in general, a lack of production from Charles, who had pretty much dominated in the post the last few games.

Moore didn’t get to be as dominant in this game as McCoughtry was for her team. Instead that honor fell to Charde Houston, who imposed her will on both ends of the floor during the most crucial time of the game and was rewarded with the tournament's Most Outstanding Performer award. When her teammates were being ineffective, it was Houston who became energized — grabbing rebounds, blocking shots, stealing the ball and most importantly, finally finding a way to score.

Houston was subbed into the game for Charles at the 8:50 mark and her team holding onto a slim four point lead. She grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back for two points.

Radde and senior point guard Partika Barlow went on a three-point shooting spree, racking up nine points on successive trips down court, making it a one-point contest at the 5:20 mark, 48-47.

In the final 4:30 of the game, Houston scored three points, but more importantly had two defensive rebounds, one offensive rebound and a steal.

With four minutes left in the game and her team behind by four points, Barlow made a critical error when she fouled Renee Montgomery on a 3-point shot. Montgomery made all three foul shots (she was a perfect 11-11 from the stripe) and the score was 53-47.

Louisville managed to cut the lead back down to two with 2:22 to go.

Foul shots by Houston, Moore and a layup from Moore put the game out of reach. Louisville had to resort to fouling to stop the clock. Unfortunately for them the ballhandler that they fouled was Montgomery and she made all eight of her free throws in the last minute of the game.

The Huskies escaped a close one and took home the championship trophy.

UConn was outrebounded by the Cardinals 50-42, an unusual statistic for the Huskies and certain to be a point of emphasis in practice over the next two weeks and into the NCAA tournament.

Auriemma was happy that his team was getting the chance to experience winning the regular-season championship and the tournament championship.

“It’s a good feeling to know that these particular players were able to do something that hasn’t been done in a long time, and especially now given the makeup of the league. To win the regular season and then win the tournament and to do it in a game where we played 'really good,' 'good,' 'OK,' 'lousy' -- a little bit of everything -- but when it was time to win the game we made some plays to win the game.”

Louisville hopes that their performance in the tournament will catch the eye of the NCAA selection committee when it comes time to determine the seedings for the tournament. They defeated two nationally ranked teams – Rutgers and West Virginia – to get to tonight’s matchup. They came back from a 15-point halftime deficit and made it a very interesting game against the #1 team in the nation.

“It was a 15-point game at half and I bet all of you had us written off, and this game was off and there was no way for us to come back,” Walz said. "We gave them a game plan and they followed it; it was a one-point game and we had the ball with about four and a half left. They just fought and fought and fought.”

Walz also wished that the game had been played on a neutral court.

“For a group of kids to play as hard as they have and to unfortunately play on a home site for a championship game ... but I know we are trying to get that fixed. When you have 9,982 and I think 53 were maybe from our place, it is just tough. It is a hard thing for the kids to get over because UConn’s fans are so good. They have a wonderful following and it is amazing but when it gets down to crunch time you get extra adrenaline from nine thousand people cheering for you.”

McCoughtry summed up the game: “It came down to runs; they would make a run and then we would make a run. It was all about who could withstand a run and UConn is a good team. They play these types of game many times and I am glad that we were able to play and gain experience which will help us in the long run.”

McCoughtry led all scorers with 22, followed by Montgomery who had 20 points for the Huskies.

Moore and Houston each had 13 points. Candyce Bingham, Louisville's forward, led all players with 14 rebounds. Houston had 11 for the Huskies, including seven defensive rebounds.

Now both teams head home and wait to see what Selection Monday will bring. UConn is guaranteed to be the number one seed, it remains to be seen what value the NCAA selection committee will place on Louisville’s accomplishments in this tournament.