By Staff
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“I want to win four national championships,” UConn senior forward Breanna Stewart said in 2012 before she began her college career. Stewart and the Connecticut Huskies not only won four straight national titles, they gave UConn an NCAA-record 11 championships Tuesday night. Head coach Geno Auriemma passed UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden for most titles by a coach in Division I basketball history with the 11th title.
The undefeated 38-0 Huskies beat Syracuse 82-51. The top overall seed dominated the game from the tip, going on a 9-0 run to start, keeping No. 4 Syracuse scoreless for the first four minutes of the game.
Stewart, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Senior Morgan Tuck contributed 19 points and seven rebounds. Senior point guard Moriah Jefferson contributed 13 points and five assists.
“This is exactly what we wanted,” Stewart said during the championship ceremony. “This is what we asked for. We said we wanted to do this when we came in as freshmen and now we did it.”
Jefferson was still in shock about the record-making victory.
“It feels incredible. I don’t even have words right now. I just have to give all the glory to God and I cannot believe we just won four national championships in a row.”
With 1:46 left in the game, Geno Auriemma emptied his bench to let his reserves take the floor. Senior walk-on guard Briana Pulido scored a jumper with 11 seconds left to the roar of the crowd and cheers from the UConn bench. The pre-med senior came to UConn initially as a track athlete but joined the women’s basketball team during the 2013-14 season.
Cornelia Fondren paced Syracuse with 16 points. Brittney Sykes scored 12 and Alexis Peterson added 11.
While UConn never looked in danger of losing, leading 50-23 at halftime, Syracuse went on a 16-0 run in the third quarter. The offensive outburst led Auriemma to call a defensive timeout. When the Huskies came out of the timeout, they made the last two shots of the period. The Orange outscored their opponents 18-8 in the third quarter. However, in the fourth, UConn outpaced Syracuse 18-8.
UConn had a 399 in passes in the compared to only 165 for Syracuse. Connecticut’s passing game was led by the back and forth combination of Moriah Jefferson and Brianna Stewart. Stewart and Jefferson combined for 88 passes to each other. [More statistics]
Stewart became the only player in NCAA basketball history to win the MOP award four times. The All-tournament team included Talia Walton (Washington), Brittney Sykes (Syracuse) and three players from UConn: Moriah Jefferson, Morgan Tuck and Breanna Stewart.
Stewart, one of just six players in NCAA tournament history to score at least 400 career points in the tournament, finished her tournament career with 446 points, the third most in tournament history and second in UConn history behind Maya Moore. She finished second in NCAA tournament history in career blocks with 71 and third in career rebounds with 207.
Jefferson finished her UConn career with 106 assists in NCAA tournament play, tied for fourth most in tournament history alongside fellow Huskie Diana Taurasi.
Tuck, who has one year left of college eligibility, is keeping her decision about turning pro versus staying at UConn under wraps. The WNBA draft is April 14.
UConn Notes
Syracuse Notes
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UConn had a whopping 399 in passes in the National Championship Game, compared to only 165 for Syracuse. Connecticut’s passing game was led by the back and forth combination of Moriah Jefferson and Brianna Stewart. Stewart and Jefferson combined for 88 passes to each other.
Team | Passer | Receiver | Total Passes |
Connecticut | Moriah Jefferson | Breanna Stewart | 45 |
Connecticut | Breanna Stewart | Moriah Jefferson | 43 |
Connecticut | Moriah Jefferson | Kia Nurse | 32 |
Syracuse | Cornelia Fondren | Alexis Peterson | 29 |
Connecticut | Kia Nurse | Moriah Jefferson | 29 |
Connecticut | Breanna Stewart | Kia Nurse | 27 |
Team | Touches | Passes | Assists | Hockey Assists |
Connecticut | 497 | 399 | 22 | 14 |
Syracuse | 253 | 165 | 5 | 0 |
Hockey Assist: When a player makes the pass that leads to the pass that is an assist. Player A passes to Player B who assists Player C to score.
Syracuse Struggles on Jumpers
UConn has a lot of success when Syracuse played them close, as they shot 20-31 (65%) on contested jumpers. On the other end, Syracuse really struggled on contested jumpers, as they shot only 9-32 (28%), compared to 43% on uncontested jumpers.
Team | Contested | Uncontested |
Connecticut | 20-31 (65%) | 8-23 (35%) |
Syracuse | 9-32 (28%) | 13-30 (43%) |
Distance Ran
Player |
Team | Distance |
Kia Nurse | UConn | 2.59 |
Breanna Stewart | UConn | 2.48 |
Moriah Jefferson | UConn | 2.41 |
Morgan Tuck | UConn | 2.23 |
Gabby Williams | UConn | 1.74 |
Brianna Butler | Syracuse | 2.12 |
Alexis Peterson | Syracuse | 2.07 |
Brittney Sykes | Syracuse | 2 |
Cornelia Fondren | Syracuse | 1.94 |
Bria Day | Syracuse | 1.31 |
Breanna Stewart Defensive Matchups
Defender |
Time | FG% | 3P% | eFG% | Points |
Brittney Sykes | 2:14 | 1-3 (33%) | 1-2 (50%) | 50 | 3 |
Cornelia Fondren | 1:44 | 0-1 (0%) | 0-0 (0%) | 0 | 0 |
Brianna Butler | 1:18 | 0-2 (0%) | 0-1 (0%) | 0 | 0 |
Bria Day | 1:14 | 2-2 (100%) | 0-0 (0%) | 100 | 4 |
Drives
Syracuse was able to penetrate more often than UConn, as they had 17 drives compared to only 8 for UConn. However, Syracuse did not find much success on those drives, as they managed only 0.35 Team PPP.
Team |
Player | Drives | Points | Team Points | Team PPP | Shot % | FG% | Pass % | TO% |
Syracuse | Brittney Sykes | 8 | 6 | 6 | 0.75 | 75 | 50 | 12.5 | 0 |
Syracuse | Cornelia Fondren | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
Syracuse | Alexis Peterson | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 0 | 25 | 25 |
UConn | Kia Nurse | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 0 |
Off-Dribble Jumpers
Syracuse attempted 28 jumpers off the dribbles, compared to only 6 for UConn. However Syracuse shot only 36% on those attempts.
Team | FGM | FGA | FG% |
Syracuse Orange | 10 | 28 | 36% |
Connecticut Huskies | 4 | 6 | 67% |
Ball Screens
Alexis Peterson was the ball handler on 29 ball screens versus UConn, 20 more than the next most frequent ball handler.
Ball Handler |
Screens | Points | Team Points | Team PPP | Shot % | FG% | Pass% | TO% |
Alexis Peterson | 29 | 2 | 15 | 0.63 | 20 | 20 | 68 | 8 |
Brittney Sykes | 9 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 44.4 | 50 | 33.3 | 0 |
Moriah Jefferson | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0.43 | 0 | 0 | 85.7 | 0 |
Cornelia Fondren | 7 | 4 | 5 | 0.71 | 71.4 | 40 | 0 | 0 |
Brianna Butler | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0.75 | 50 | 0 | 25 | 0 |
Kia Nurse | 5 | 0 | 7 | 1.4 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 0 |
Maggie Morrison | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33.3 | 0 | 66.7 | 0 |