 "Photo: Anastasia Paranicas/Senior Photographer")
Connecticut 62
Rutgers 76
What a difference a year makes.
In last year's outing between the Rutgers and Connecticut women's basketball teams at the Louis Brown Athletic Center, the first half slammed shut on a Scarlet Knights team that had barely managed to heave themselves into double figures. A gutsy second half provided slight vindication, but RU still dropped the contest by a score of 66-43 in front of the home crowd.
In the same match-up one year later, showcasing the nation's No. 10 and No. 11 squads, nearly the first six minutes of the game saw a UConn team struggling to put home its first points. They surrendered six turnovers in that stretch, on 0-of-4 shooting to start. Although the Huskies never trailed in the teams' first meeting of the year, the Knights were able to say the same last night, on their way to defeating the defending national champions 76-62, for only the second time in history and the first time since Bill Clinton left office.
How's that for a turn-around?
It was only eleven days ago, however, that Rutgers went into Connecticut's house and dropped a game that was in many ways within their reaches, a sour road loss that turned into a wonderful interlude to last night's rematch.
"It feels great," senior guard Chelsea Newton said. "They're a great team and they've dominated us for so many years. It just feels great to get over the hump and play like we know how... now we've got the monkey off our back."
The game began reminiscent of the first RU-UConn battle this season, except exactly opposite. The Knights used scoring from four different players to jump out to an early 12-0 lead, the same way the Huskies began two weeks ago. Connecticut's first bucket came 5:43 into regulation on a Charde Houston bucket. Houston converted for eight of the Huskies' first ten, but the Knights used the energy of Newton, the RAC, and their up-tempo play to completely control the early part of the game.
"In the first five minutes of the game, I think the game was decided," Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma said.
With 8:12 remaining in the first, the Huskies were finally able to cut the deficit to single-digits, followed up by a two-minute scoreless period for the Knights who suddenly found their lead cut to three. Consecutive Essence Carson jumpers and a late Pondexter score eventually put RU back up twelve going into halftime.
The Huskies' 22 first-half points tied their season low, and the Knights' 34 ties the most UConn has given up in the first half this year - 34 points in the first half for a team that only managed 44 all game in the first UConn contest.
The Knights came out of the locker room on a mission, and three consecutive scores by Michelle Campbell and Newton extended RU's lead to 17, the largest on the day, early in the second stanza.
The Knights were able to contain the Huskies on the offensive end, with the exception of the hot hands of Ann Strother, who rained three pointers on the Knights all day.
The Huskies used a tough zone defense to shut down the usual penetration of Cappie Pondexter and Matee Ajavon, forcing them along with Newton to take more outside shots. RU retained its double-digit advantage for most of the second half, battling a fierce Connecticut press and tenacious defense. The last minute of gameclock took over ten real-life minutes to play, with Auriemma using his team's fouls and remaining timeouts to take some of the air out of the Rutgers crowd.
"You hate to sit there and watch the other team run out the clock," Auriemma said. "We were hoping they'd miss their free throws, but they made them."
Pondexter's late-game heroics, including eight points in just over a minute, secured the 76-62 victory for Rutgers, now a perfect 11-0 at home this year and 9-2 in Big East play. The 14-point defeat is Connecticut's worst loss this year.
The Knights were led by Newton's season-high 19 points, followed by 18 from Pondexter and 13 from Campbell. Carson recorded eight points, eight boards, and four blocks, while Ajavon's five assists led all players in that category.
For the Huskies, Strother was the high scorer with 20 points, including a 4-of-9 performance from three-point range. Ashley Valley, whose career-high 12 points spelled doom for the Knights two weeks ago, was held to five yesterday.
For Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer, finally defeating UConn relieves her of the unbelievable burden and the biggest (and perhaps only) blemish in her sparkling coaching career.
"It might be just a walk in the park to Connecticut, and that's okay," Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "Personally, this [series] has continued to frustrate me, and it's important to speak to our players and have them believe we can win... but in the end it was the team's game. They refused to lose."
While this win was huge, the players know that it was, in reality, just another game, and the real moment of truth will come when the post-season arrives.
"We know in our hearts this season isn't over," Pondexter said. "We're just gonna keep improving... our goal from the beginning was to win a Big East regular season championship, and today has put us in great position to do that."
The Knights take their huge momentum boost into Wednesday's game at Syracuse. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be the second time in 10 days the teams have met.
KNIGHTS NOTE: A Cappie Pondexter jump-shot in the final seconds of the first half put the senior guard over the 1,300-point plateau for her career. Pondexter's 18-point performance brought her total to 1,315 in 77 games with the Knights.
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