More spring break stories

Here are the new stories published on The Daily Campus website since the last batch.

Matt McDonough: The exorcism

Mac Cerullo: With dominating win, tensions eased

Colin McDonough: No luck for Irish

No. 1 UConn wins Big East tournament

By Colin McDonough, Senior Staff Writer

HARTFORD-An old mantra in sports is that it is very tough to beat the same team three times in one season, especially if the opponent is a conference rival. Try telling that to the Huskies.

The No. 1 UConn women’s basketball team beat No. 10 Notre Dame for the third time this season, and this win was in the Big East tournament championship game. The Huskies took down the Fighting Irish 73-64 at the XL Center in Hartford. UConn moved to 32-1 on the season and clinched their 17th conference tournament title and fourth straight.

Stefanie Dolson scored 24 points and although there were chants of “MVP” when Dolson was at the free throw line in the last minute, Maya Moore received tournament Most Outstanding Player honors. Moore scored 22 points and had five rebounds in the final.

Dolson, Moore and Bria Hartley took home hardware for All-Tournament team. The Huskies beat Georgetown, Rutgers and then Notre Dame on consecutive days to win the tournament.

Big East women’s basketball championship at the half

By Colin McDonough, Senior Staff Writer

HARTFORD- The No. 1 UConn women’s basketball team is in a dogfight in the Big East championship game against No. 10 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish had as big a lead as seven points during the first half but the Huskies took the lead before halftime and are holding on 32-31 at the break. Maya Moore and Stefanie Dolson each have ten points for UConn.

Skylar Diggins only has 2 points and has been held without a field goal thus far for the Irish. Natalie Novosel and Natiel Achonwa lead Notre Dame with eight points each.

The main concern for the Huskies will be Bria Hartley’s three first half fouls. The lack of depth hasn’t affected UConn so far but could in tonight’s second half.

It should be an exciting second half here at the XL Center in Hartford. The Huskies will try to win their fourth straight, and 17th overall tournament championship, while the Irish will go for its first ever Big East championship.

Spring Break stories

Sports Editor Mac Cerullo and Associate Sports Editor Matt McDonough will be filing from New York City at the men’s Big East tournament this week. Senior Staff Writer Colin McDonough will be at the women Big East championship in Hartford tomorrow night. Check dailycampus.com for stories pertaining to the Huskies in action over spring break. Since the newspaper is not in print this week, here are stories on UConn’s Senior Day loss to Notre Dame. Not that you’d necessarily want to revisit it.

Mac’s Game story:

No luck on senior day

Matt’s Notebook:

Rebounding woes reason for emotional senior day loss

Matt’s Column:

Hansbrough lacked class

Bracketology Update

By Colin McDonough, Senior Staff Writer

The UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams both are gearing up for the Big East and NCAA tournaments. Here are some of the projected brackets for the Huskies.

According to Si.com’s Andy Glockner, the men’s team is projected to start in Washington, D.C. for the first and second rounds of the West region. No. 4 seed UConn is predicted to face SoCon opponent College of Charleston. If the Huskies make it out of the first two rounds, they’d go to Anaheim for regionals where No. 1 seed BYU is in their bracket. The men’s team does not have history on their side if they play in DC. The Huskies have not won at the Verizon Center since beating Washington in the 2006 Sweet Sixteen. But No. 1 seed UConn would be upset in the Elite Eight by George Mason capping one of the most disappointing tournament ousts in school history.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi sees it differently. UConn is a No. 4 seed in the East region and would play in Newark if they got past Princeton in the first round and either Vanderbilt or UAB in the second round. Instead of Washington, DC, the Huskies would start their path to the Final Four in Tuscon.

The women’s side is pretty simple. UConn has all but received the No. 1 overall seed and will play the first two rounds in Storrs at Gampel Pavilion. If the Huskies make it to regionals they would head to Philadelphia with a Final Four trip to Indianapolis on the line. Duke is projected to be the No. 2 seed in UConn’s bracket by ESPN.

No. 2 UConn blows out No. 14 Oklahoma

By Colin McDonough, Senior Staff Writer

The No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team beat No. 14 Oklahoma 86-45 at the XL Center in Hartford.

Maya Moore passed former Louisville star Angel McCoughtry in the first half to become the Big East all-time leading scorer. Moore finished the easy victory with points while Stefanie Dolson dropped 15 and Tiffany Hayes scored 13 points against the outmatched Sooners. At one point in the first half Oklahoma was down 31-6. The Sooners were held to 29.7 percent from the floor and the Huskies’ defense forced 17 turnovers. Although UConn had 16 turnovers themselves, Oklahoma had no chance of any sort of comeback.

Both teams honored Kay Yow’s Cancer Fund on this Valentine’s Day. UConn had pink trim while Oklahoma went all out and sported pink uniforms and sneakers. Many fans wore pink to promote breast cancer research and cancer survivors were honored during the game.

UConn’s next contest will be Saturday when the Huskies welcome No. 8 Notre Dame to Gampel Pavilion in Storrs. With another ranked team up next, we’ll see if they stand a chance on UConn’s home floor. The Sooners clearly did not.

No. 2 UConn destroys No. 3 Duke

By Colin McDonough, Senior Staff Writer

The student section chanted “overrated,” Gampel Pavilion’s crowd of 10,031 stayed on its feet to give the No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team an ovation after it had built up a 30-point lead over No. 3 Duke. And all of that happened before the buzzer sounded for halftime.

The Huskies began the game on a 21-2 run and the Blue Devils could not overcome a 26-point halftime deficit. Duke was handed its first loss of the season as UConn improved to 21-1 with the 87-51 win.

Maya Moore finished the game with 29 points and outscored the Blue Devils 16-15 by herself in the first half. Tiffany Hayes added 20 points while Kelly Farris pitched in 14. The Huskies’ backbreaking run to bury Duke really ended the game before the first half ended.

“We talked a lot going into the game about how physical they played us last year and how we needed to set the tone right away, those first five minutes of how we wanted the game to go,” said coach Geno Auriemma. “You talk about all those things and whether it happens are a totally different story. I was as surprised as anyone else probably.”

The Blue Devils fell to 20-1 and coach Joanne McCallie was disappointed with her team’s effort and their inability to respond to UConn and a near sellout at Gampel Pavilion.

“It’s just a great place for women’s basketball,” McCallie said. “I didn’t think it was exceptionally loud this way. There’s no doubt about the run, some great shooting from UConn but I thought Connecticut came out punching and we just took a step back.”

Women’s Basketball runs Duke out of Gampel…. at halftime

Andrew Callahan, Staff Writer

Historically, when the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams get together in any sport, you’ll find exactly what you’d expect. Back and forth game, blows traded by each squad and generally a close finish. Just twenty minutes through No. 2 UConn’s battle with No. 3 Duke, this game will surely go down in history– just for all the wrong reasons.

With a national television crowd watching, the Huskies opened the first five minutes on a punishing 13-0 run and did not let up until the buzzer sounded. At the commencement of a merciful halftime for the visiting Blue Devils, the scoreboard read 41-15 in favor of the Huskies. Backdoor cuts, long-range three pointers and UConn defensive stops highlighted the first half for the home team while Duke simply imploded. Nothing has been going their way and things aren’t looking up after a turnover to start the second half.

Maya Moore leads all scorers  (and Duke) with sixteen points as Kelly Faris trails behind her with eleven. Following a five-game slump in which she’s failed really to do anything, it’s been a very encouraging performance for the sophomore. A comfortable plus-10 edge in rebounding has been propelled by freshman center Stephanie Dolson while senior Jasmine Thomas leads the Blue Devils with a measly three points.

No. 2 Huskies defeat rival Rutgers

By Colin McDonough, Senior Staff Writer

Maya Moore and Stefanie Dolson fight for a loose ball. - AP

Coach Geno Auriemma said last Saturday he wanted more out of Tiffany Hayes. Tonight, he got just that.

Hayes led all scorers with 18 points and Maya Moore added 17 of her own to lead the UConn women’s basketball team to a 63-44 win at Rutgers.

A 13-0 run by the Huskies at the start of the second half propelled them to the victory of the Scarlet Knights and improved their record to 19-1 and 8-0 in the Big East. UConn also handed Rutgers its first conference loss of the season. April Sykes led the Scarlet Knights with 20 points.

The Huskies have now started a nice, little winning streak after their record-breaking 90-game win streak that concluded Dec. 30 at Stanford. UConn has won seven in a row after the Cardinal snapped its streak. The Huskies next game is Saturday afternoon at Cincinnati.

UConn Oddity of the Day: Caroline Doty releases trick shot video

By Mac Cerullo, Sports Editor

This isn’t really an oddity so much as it is awesome. Regardless, Caroline Doty may be sidelined for the year, but she has clearly been making the most of her downtime. Check out this impressive video of Caroline Doty’s trick shots, it was sent to me by Kyle Campbell, best known in as the Pink Hat Kid at men’s basketball games, who edited the video along with Greg Mihailides, who produced it. They did a great job with it, and naturally props to Caroline for pulling all of these shots off, along with coach Geno Auriemma, who hits one of his own as well.