March 27, 2005
By CHUCK SCHOFFNER
AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Women's basketball will have a new champion this year - finally. Connecticut's remarkable run is over.
Stanford made all the right plays down the stretch and got 21 points from freshman sensation Candice Wiggins to beat Connecticut 76-59 on Sunday night in the semifinals of the Kansas City Regional.
After winning the last three national championships and four of the last five, Connecticut (25-8) won't even make it back to the Final Four, its 20-game winning streak in NCAA tournament play is history.
It was the Huskies' earliest exit from the NCAAs since they lost to Iowa State in the regional finals in 1999. Since then they had gone 30-1 in the tournament until running into a Stanford team that showed the same grit that has carried UConn to so many victories through the years.
Stanford (32-2), ranked No. 1 but only the No. 2 seed in the regional, moves on with a 23-game winning streak and is just a victory from its first Final Four trip since 1997. The Cardinal will play top-seeded Michigan State, a 76-64 winner over Vanderbilt, in the regional final Tuesday night.
They got there with a strong second half against the game's most dominant program. It wasn't always pretty, what with all the jostling and shoving underneath the basket and, in the first half especially, some near woeful shooting.
But the Cardinal will take it. They erased a six-point halftime deficit by starting the second half with a 6-0 run, then went ahead to stay with a 16-5 burst midway through the half.
Wiggins, Susan King Borchardt and Sebnem Kimyacioglu each made a 3-pointer during that critical stretch, Wiggins added a 15-foot jumper and T'Nae Thiel converted a three-point play, making it 54-46 with 7:18 to play.
There was still enough time for Connecticut to make one more run, but it never happened. The Huskies got it down to 58-53 on Ashley Battle's 3 with 4:42 remaining, only to have Stanford deliver the fatal blows.
First it was a 3-pointer by Borchardt, then a 3 by Wiggins, who came on strong after a terrible first half. That made it 64-53 with 3{ minutes to play and the end was near for the Huskies. They couldn't come up with any miracle plays on the floor and coach Geno Auriemma couldn't conjure up any more sideline magic.
With 1:38 to play, the lead had grown to 15 and the Huskies knew it was over.
As the final seconds ticked away, the Connecticut players sat glumly on the bench and Auriemma stood with his hands on his hips, a look of resignation on his face. He started toward the Stanford bench to shake hands with coach Tara VanDerveer even before the final buzzer sounded.
Wiggins, a second-team All-American and the Pac-10 player of the year, hardly looked the part while scoring only six points and committing five turnovers in the first half. But she shook it off and proved her mettle over the final 20 minutes, hitting a couple of 3-pointers and finishing 11-for-12 at the free throw line.
Borchardt went 4-for-5 from 3-point range - and 6-for-7 overall - to finish with 16 points. Kelly Suminski added 12 for the Cardinal, who shot 57.7 percent in the second half.
Connecticut sputtered on offense from the beginning and really never got into any kind of flow at that end of the floor. The Huskies were just 9-for-33 in the second half, shot 32.4 percent for the game and committed 16 turnovers.
Barbara Turner, with 17 points, was the only Connecticut player in double figures. Battle and Jessica Moore each scored eight for the Huskies and the usually reliable Ann Strother had only four on 2-for-8 shooting.
Even with all of that going against them, the Huskies led 41-38 when Mel Thomas hit a 3-pointer with 13:59 left. Then it started to unravel for the defending champs.
Angela Perryman's layup drew Stanford to within a point and Borchardt's 3 from the deep right corner put the Cardinal up 43-41. Turner tied it with a bucket inside, but UConn's elation was short lived.
Kimyacioglu nailed a 3-pointer, her only basket of the night, and Wiggins followed with a jumper. It was 48-43 and Stanford led the rest of the way.