UConn Goes After 100th Win In A Row Monday Night

Women’s college hoops featured two important games on Monday night.

Few teams were better prepared than SC to weather the confluence of talent and history that CT brings to bear upon opponents, 99 of whom have fallen to the Huskies in a row, 97 of those losses coming by double digits.

UConn will be going for its unprecedented 100th consecutive victory when it faces SC – its 62nd straight at home in Storrs, Conn.

“They are opportunistic”, SC coach Dawn Staley said. “She’s tall and physically but she can also go out on the perimeter and play so that’s going to be a challenge”. Forward Napheesa Collier dropped 28 points to lead the Huskies in a closely-contested 78-76 win against the Seminoles.

The sellout crowd of 10,167 included past UConn greats and WNBA Storm players Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart.

Williams answered right back when she scored off a steal and sweet feed from freshman Crystal Dangerfield but things got interesting when Collier was whistled for her second foul with 3:50 left in the first half. The St. Peters, Missouri, native was selected to the all-tournament team.

The South Carolina Gamecocks enters the matchup with a 21-2 overall record and a 9-1 record on the road, and the Huskies enter with a 24-0 overall record and 11-0 record at home, with a 60- home-game winning streak. “Maybe people will look at us and say what are we doing?” She doesn’t play a lot of minutes and she’s not the star of the team. They forced a few turnovers, got to a few more loose balls, made a few more plays, and all of a sudden, a four-point lead turned into 13 with just over four minutes to go. All-American A’ja Wilson is averaging 17 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, while Alaina Coates averages a double-double at 14 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. “They had the advantage of being bigger and taller, but I had the advantage of smaller and quicker. I’m really proud of them for that”.

“I hope to see our toughness come out because it is going to be a grind”.

It was an entertaining, fiercely competitive game from the start.

“They carried the torch across the finish line to 100”, Auriemma said of this season’s team. The Huskies then went on a 15-4 run to regain the lead, but Maryland hit four 3-pointers to stay in the game. She has never had three consecutive double-doubles.

This will be the final big test of the season until at least the Sweet Sixteen for UConn, who has plowed through the American Athletic Conference slate as expected.

Cal is coached by Lindsay Gottlieb, who led the Bears to their only NCAA Final Four appearance in 2013.

Staley has worked closely with UConn coach Geno Auriemma the past two years as an assistant on the US women’s national team, helping lead that group to gold at the Rio Olympics. “You don’t have the type of high school career she had if you didn’t believe in yourself and have a certain level of toughness”. The Huskies won ’em all.