The Connecticut Huskies are NCAA champions for the second year in a row after downing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 79-58, on Tuesday night.
Notre Dame vs. Connecticut final score, 2014 NCAA Women’s Tournament: Huskies dominate to win title, 79-58
The Connecticut Huskies crushed Notre Dame in the second half to win the NCAA women’s championship once again.
Frederick Breedon
UConn’s unparalleled run of success continues as the team won its fourth NCAA title in six years. It was also the third time the Huskies have gone completely undefeated during the season in the past six years.
The final game ended up being a bit of a lopsided affair, which is unfortunate considering the rarity of the records for both teams entering the game. Two undefeated teams have never met in the championship game before. In fact, two undefeated teams have met in the women's NCAA Tournament only once before, back in 1998 when 33-0 Tennessee met a 28-0 Liberty squad.
Notre Dame trailed by seven points at halftime, only the third time all season it has trailed at the start of the second half. In both those other instances, against Oregon State and against Tennessee, the results ended up in Notre Dame’s favor.
Against Connecticut it was a different story. Notre Dame couldn’t get any sort of offense going in the second half as Connecticut went on an 18-5 run to put the game completely out of reach. Notre Dame went five minutes without a single point in the process, as Stefanie Dolson completely dominated the court. Dolson finished with 17 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks.
Notre Dame had absolutely no answer for the sheer height advantage of Connecticut. The Huskies outrebounded the Irish 53-31 and grabbed 22 offensive rebounds. Kayla McBride led Notre Dame with 21 points, but the Irish had a hard time grinding out any buckets. Notre Dame shot 36 percent from the floor and was 6-of-19 from the three point line.
The 79 points given up by Notre Dame is the most this season, and the 58 points scored is the least scored this season.
All the success for the Lady Huskies comes on the heels of the men’s squad winning the NCAA championship on Monday. The Huskies made history in 2004 when both the men’s and women’s basketball teams won the national titles, the first time that occurred in NCAA Division I history.
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