Stanford Ends #1 Connecticut's Title Hopes

By Tara Polen: SPM Women's Basketball Editor
Posted Monday, April 7, 2008

Stanford's Candice Wiggins fights for possession with Connecticut's Ketia Swanier. Photo by David Taylor.

TAMPA, Fla. -- There will be no Geno-Pat grudge match this season. Perhaps the basketball gods simply did not mean for it to be. Perhaps it bore reminding – for some -- that Connecticut and Tennessee are not the be-all and end-all of women’s college basketball.

The Stanford Cardinal, who can brag two national titles of its own and six previous trips to the Final Four, as well as a nine-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year in Tara VanDerveer, eliminated the 5-time champion Connecticut Huskies at the opening semi-final game Sunday night at the St. Pete Times Forum, 82-73.

“I have never seen a team run so smoothly on the offensive and defensive end,” Connecticut’s sophomore forward Kaili McLaren said. “They didn’t make any mistakes, and we did and that was the game.”

Led by Wade Trophy winner and three-time Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year Candice Wiggins’ 25 points, Stanford played a smarter, consistent game of basketball on Sunday night. Their offensive patience and skilled ball-movement led to 20 assists with only 11 turnovers, on 44.4 percent shooting from the field. They even outrebounded the Connecticut Huskies, 43-37.

Wiggins, the all-time leading scorer in Pac10 history (she broke Lisa Leslie’s record this season) is coming off a record-setting two-game tournament performance. She is the only player in the history of the NCAA tournament to score more than 40 points in two games, which she did against Maryland in the regional final (41 points) and against UTEP in the second round (44 points).

The Cardinal was the first team to score more than 80 points against UConn this season.

Stanford started with a layup from Wiggins, and other than about 30 seconds when Connecticut went up 3-2, and a 10-all tie at the 15-minute mark, the Cardinal led for the entire game. They were up 40-33 at the half, and had not lost a game all season when heading in to the locker room with the lead.

Connecticut started the second with two quick baskets from freshman Maya Moore and junior Renee Montgomery to get within two, but Stanford went on a 7-2 run to take the score back out to 47-40. The Huskies tried once more to close the gap, getting within one on a layup from senior Charde Houston, but again Stanford pushed with an 11-0 run in the middle of the second half.

UConn got within five with just under five minutes to go, but it was all Stanford from there. Wiggins was fouled to stop the clock three times in the final minute and a half and hit 5-of-6 to seal the win.

“I think what’s driving this team is the fact that we don’t want to stop playing with each other. … We don’t want the season to end,” Wiggins said.

Three other players scored in double-figures for Stanford in addition to Wiggins, who also led off the boards with 13 rebounds. Freshman Kayla Pedersen was the next leading scorer with 17 on 8-of-14 shooting, and sophomore Jayne Appel hit better than 50 percent from the field to notch a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Moore, the reigning Big East Player and Freshman of the Year, had what would normally be a pretty good night, although she was not particularly successful from behind the arc, shooting only 3-for-11, and didn’t score her first point until 13 minutes into the game. She did make a spectacular play for her second field goal, corralling a rebound and putting it back up while off-balance. She ended the night with 20 points, nine rebounds, four turnovers, three blocks and two steals. Moore scored more than 20 points for the 14th time this season.

But -- "They played better,” Moore said about Stanford. “They executed their offense better, and we didn’t make our shots.”

Connecticut did have four players in double-figure scoring; Renee Montgomery, despite an awful shooting night (4-18) – including 1-for-9 from behind the arc -- ended with 15 points. Most of those were earned at the free-throw line, where the point guard hit 6-of-7.

Ketia Swanier was in some foul trouble throughout the game, and played only 26 minutes. Her three 3-pointers helped put her in double-figures as she tallied 13 points plus five assists. Senior Charde Houston had an efficient game, with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting and five rebounds. Sophomore Tina Charles hit 80 percent of her field goals, including three impressive hook shots, for nine points and six rebounds.

But none of that was enough against the smooth and efficient Cardinal .

“That’s what happens,” Houston said. “I can only say that they really improved since we played them in the Virgin Islands, and that’s what good teams do. We’re just used to doing things and other teams not having an answer, but I really commend them for sticking with it.”

Houston is referring to the Huskies matchup with the Cardinal back in November, when UConn still had Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene. Since then, both have been sidelined with ACL tears. Tonight coach Geno Auriemma admitted that of all the teams he has faced this season (without his starters Thomas and Greene), Stanford was the one best equipped to exploit the Huskies’ weaknesses.

“I heard coaches talk about it on scouting reports,” Auriemma said. “ ‘You have to get to Connecticut’s guards, they don’t have any depth in the guard spot.’ … I thought they’d better hurry up – we only have two games left. And they got us today. ... This is the one team we can't match up with without the two guys who were hurt.”

“This is a great win for our team, our program,” VanDerveer said. “I’m just so proud of all of our team. … I’m just really excited to see the improvement in our team, and I just – we want to keep it going, obviously just for one more game."

Stanford will play Tennessee for the title Tuesday night.