Big East champs again: UConn women pull away from WVU

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Big East champs again: UConn women pull away from WVU

Hartford, CT (Sports Network) - Kalana Greene scored 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, and top-ranked Connecticut captured the Big East Tournament title and stretched its winning streak to a record 72 games with a 60-32 triumph over No. 9 West Virginia.

Tiffany Hayes had 15 points, while Tina Charles contributed 12 points, 10 boards and four blocks for the Huskies (33-0), who pulled away over the game's final 15 minutes and didn't allow a field goal for the Mountaineers over an 11-minute stretch in the second half.

"We just wanted to keep playing defense," Greene said. "Our defense was pretty good the entire game. We were not having a great offensive night, so you know you can rely on defense. I think we got key stops and dominated the boards tonight."

Maya Moore tallied 10 points for the Huskies, who are assured of being the top-seeded team for the NCAA Tournament. On Monday, they broke their own longest winning streak in NCAA Division I women's basketball history with a 59-44 victory over sixth-ranked Notre Dame.

The only longer winning streak in NCAA Division I basketball history is the 88-game run the UCLA men had from 1971-1974.

"It's going to be hard," Moore said of trying to win the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year. "I think we can take away a lot of good things from this tournament, and we found out some things about ourselves and some things that we need to fine tune and work on. We're going to overcome those things just like we have everything else this year."

Since the 1993-94 season, Connecticut has won either the Big East regular season or tourney title in 17 consecutive seasons - and has captured both titles 12 times over that span. They've won both three straight years and have captured five of the last six tournament championships and have a total of 16 Big East titles overall.

Liz Repella totaled 10 points for the second-seeded Mountaineers (28-5), who shot just 24.1 percent from the field and have yet to win the conference title. They were beaten by UConn in the 2006 final.

"We have had offensive droughts a lot this season, and they really exposed it tonight," Repella said. "I mean, we weren't picking. We were just stagnant."

Natalie Burton's free throw trimmed West Virginia's deficit to 33-28 with 15 1/2 minutes left, but the Mountaineers went the next 11-plus minutes without a field goal, thanks to some suffocating defense.

During that time, the Huskies went on an amazing 27-2 spurt. Moore started the flurry with a jumper and Meghan Gardler's three-pointer widened the cushion to 56-30 with under five minutes left.

Korinne Campbell's jumper, with 12 minutes left, represented the last WVU field goal until Akeema Richards scored in the final minute.

West Virginia closed a 27-10 deficit to 30-20 at the half. But the Mountaineers went just 5-of-26 from the field in the last 20 minutes.