St. Louis, MO (My Sportsbook) - It was wire-to-wire domination for the Connecticut women's
basketball team, as the Huskies captured their sixth championship, this one in unbeaten fashion, blowing out Louisville, 76-54, Tuesday night at Scottrade Center.
UConn (39-0) was hardly threatened all season, winning every game by at least 10 points. The Huskies became the fifth unbeaten champion in women's NCAA tourney history. Among them were the 1995 and 2002 UConn teams, but this squad was the most dominant of any.
Tina Charles had 25 points and tied a career-high with 19 rebounds for the Huskies. She hit 11-of-13 shots from the field.
The other teams to win the title finishing unbeaten were Tennessee in 1998 and Texas in 1986. But the only team to win every game by double-digits was this year's squad for head coach Geno Auriemma, led by Charles, Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery.
Moore was honored with the 2009 Naismith Award as women's college basketball Player of the Year on Monday, but a night later Charles was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.
Moore and Montgomery each had 18 points.
With a book already out about Auriemma entitled "Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection" the cover said it all for the Huskies this season.
"I tried to explain to my players that it's impossible to be perfect," said Auriemma. "But we can try real hard every day to be as close to it as we can. At the end of the year, you look back. If you could only see what goes into putting this together, the amount of work these kids have done from September to now, everyday it's been unbelievable."
Angel McCoughtry scored 23 for Louisville (34-5), which lost three times to the Huskies this season by a combined 89 points. Candyce Bingham added 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Cardinals, who shot 30.9 percent from the field. That included a 27 percent clip in the opening half, as UConn built a 39-25 lead after 20 minutes.
Louisville guard Deseree' Byrd was limited to two points on 1-of-10 shooting.
"We have nothing to be disappointed about," said McCoughtry. "We're going to hold our heads up high, and we're grateful to be here. Unfortunately, we couldn't come out and be national champions. But we have so much to be proud of. And they're going to be a great squad next year. I'm excited to see them next year. We're just going to hold our heads up high."
McCoughtry's jumper had Louisville in front 15-13, but that was the final lead for the Cardinals. Becky Burke's jumper tied it at 17 for Louisville and then UConn netted an ensuing 9-2 spurt. Montgomery nailed a jumper to start the flurry, and Charles accounted for the final seven UConn points.
The inside play of Charles continued to plague the Cardinals, and by halftime she had 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Louisville had no answer for Charles in the second half. She converted a three-point play for a 49-27 cushion with under 15 minutes left and the sizeable cushion remained the rest of the way.