 "Photo: John Pena / Staff Photographer")
Epiphanny Prince decided that enough was enough. With the Connecticut lead at 10 points in the second half, the sophomore guard sparked a 14-4 run that propelled the Rutgers women's basketball team to an upset victory over No. 1 UConn, 73-71.
After the Scarlet Knights tied the game up at 44, a combination of free throws and jump shooting from Prince and senior guard Matee Ajavon - something the team struggled with in the first half - sent Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma out of Piscataway with his first loss of the season.
The Knights showed in the very beginning of the game that they came to the Louis Brown Athletic Center to play. After junior center Kia Vaughn opened the game by sinking a jump shot, Prince stole the ball and went coast-to-coast to put the team up 4-0 over the Huskies.
The No. 1 ranked team in the country was not intimidated by RU's fast start. The Huskies, behind the charged play of guard Renee Montgomery, was able to build an 18-12 lead with 11:04 to go in the first half. Montgomery had a steal and seven of the team's first 18 points of the game.
The Knights (19-3, 9-1) began to put full court pressure on the Huskies in an attempt to keep Connecticut (21-1, 8-1) from busting the game wide open. The press kept the team in the game and after two free throws by Ajavon, RU cut the lead to 18-14.
That was as close as the Knights were going to get in the first half. Connecticut center Tina Charles and Montgomery helped keep the Huskies consistently ahead of the Knights in the first half with 10 and 14 points respectively in the frame.
The Knights struggled to make a jump shot in the first half, shooting 34.6 percent and zero for six from behind the arc.
Vaughn led the team in scoring in the first half with 10 points and senior forward Essence Carson was held scoreless.
Another three-pointer for Montgomery with 17 minutes to go in the half helped the Huskies take their largest lead of the game thus far, 38-28.
"We addressed the execution because there were a number of possessions that we blew," Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "We needed to move the ball [better], there were some breakdowns defensively, but we believed in it and we came ready."
At this time in the game, the tone changed in favor of the Knights. With 16 minutes to go in the game, sophomore guard Epiphanny Prince turned it on. She was fouled on a made layup and when she made the free throw, the score was 40-33 in favor of the Huskies.
"Epiphanny just started making shots and getting everybody into the flow of it," Auriemma said.
Next, Carson hit a jump shot and cut the Husky lead to five. And after four Husky points, Prince hit a three pointer to make the score 44-38.
The Knights next drive resulted in an and-one for Prince and cut the Husky lead to three points. Prince continued to light it up and another three-point play tied the score at 44 points apiece.
RU took a quick 46-44 lead on another Prince layup, but Connecticut tied it right back up.
"I don't think [Prince's performance was] anything less than spectacular," Stringer said. "[Ajavon] recognized that [Prince] was shooting well and found her."
The next few minutes were a back and forth battle between the two teams, and Connecticut held the lead 58-57 with six minutes remaining in the game.
RU started to build a lead with four minutes left when Prince made four consecutive free throws and put the team up 61-58. Prince, who ended the game with a career-high 33 points, continued to make free throws down the stretch. But it was Ajavon's three-pointer with 2:50 left to go that solidified the Scarlet Knight lead. Ajavon ended the game with a double-double. She had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
A Carson steal with eight seconds remaining in the game clinched the upset for the Knights. After a made free throw, RU took a 73-69 lead and won the game, 73-71.
"It means a lot to beat Connecticut," Prince said. "We just wanted to come out and match their intensity."
