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UConn's duo of Stewart and Tuck too much for Maryland to handle
The prevailing notion was that Maryland was going to struggle to deal with the red-hot UConn post tandem of Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck.
After they combined to score 49 points (on 17 of 29 shooting including going 4 of 10 from 3-point range), 17 rebounds and five blocked shots and things transpired pretty much according to the script in UConn's 81-58 win over Maryland in the national semifinal.
The Huskies have played five games in the NCAA tournament this season and in four of them Stewart and Tuck have combined to score more than 40 points.
"It is fun," Tuck said. "One of the reasons why we are averaging this much is that we both know this is the most important time. This is the part of the season we have been looking forward to all year. Stewie, she's been great all year. She got player of the year and she really deserved it."
Tuck's teammates were not shy in declaring that Tuck deserved to standing alongside of Stewart, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Moriah Jefferson on the 10-member Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-American team.
"She's an All-American," Mosqueda-Lewis boldly proclaimed.
It was Tuck who scored the final five points of the first half to enable UConn to take a 44-33 lead into the locker room at halftime. Then she opened the second half with a 3-pointer and the rout was on.
"She knew she was going to be all over Kaleena and myself so she really took her opportunity to score inside and out," Stewart said.
"She is really tough to guard, anytime you have a person who is an inside/outside matchup she is impossible guard because do you put your big post on her because she is bigger or do you put your smaller guard on her because she is playing on the perimeter."
It is the fifth straight season that UConn and Notre Dame will play in the Final Four and it is the second time it has happened and first time since the 2003 and 2004 national title games that the same two teams met in the championship game. UConn defeated Tennessee both years to win national championships No. 3 and 4.
Stewart became the 18th player to score 300 points in the NCAA Division I tournament and seven of them are from UConn while Mosqueda-Lewis recorded the 100th assist of the season in the second half. She became the fifth UConn player to hit triple digits in assists. According to Stats LLC, the only other women's Division I team to accomplish that feat since the 1999-2000 season is the 2010-11 UConn squad.
After they combined to score 49 points (on 17 of 29 shooting including going 4 of 10 from 3-point range), 17 rebounds and five blocked shots and things transpired pretty much according to the script in UConn's 81-58 win over Maryland in the national semifinal.
The Huskies have played five games in the NCAA tournament this season and in four of them Stewart and Tuck have combined to score more than 40 points.
"It is fun," Tuck said. "One of the reasons why we are averaging this much is that we both know this is the most important time. This is the part of the season we have been looking forward to all year. Stewie, she's been great all year. She got player of the year and she really deserved it."
Tuck's teammates were not shy in declaring that Tuck deserved to standing alongside of Stewart, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Moriah Jefferson on the 10-member Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-American team.
"She's an All-American," Mosqueda-Lewis boldly proclaimed.
It was Tuck who scored the final five points of the first half to enable UConn to take a 44-33 lead into the locker room at halftime. Then she opened the second half with a 3-pointer and the rout was on.
"She knew she was going to be all over Kaleena and myself so she really took her opportunity to score inside and out," Stewart said.
"She is really tough to guard, anytime you have a person who is an inside/outside matchup she is impossible guard because do you put your big post on her because she is bigger or do you put your smaller guard on her because she is playing on the perimeter."
It is the fifth straight season that UConn and Notre Dame will play in the Final Four and it is the second time it has happened and first time since the 2003 and 2004 national title games that the same two teams met in the championship game. UConn defeated Tennessee both years to win national championships No. 3 and 4.
Stewart became the 18th player to score 300 points in the NCAA Division I tournament and seven of them are from UConn while Mosqueda-Lewis recorded the 100th assist of the season in the second half. She became the fifth UConn player to hit triple digits in assists. According to Stats LLC, the only other women's Division I team to accomplish that feat since the 1999-2000 season is the 2010-11 UConn squad.
posted by Jim Fuller at
12:33 AM
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