UConn stalwarts Tina Charles, Maya Moore, and Renee Montgomery (left to right) jump for joy as their perfect season culminates in an NCAA championship.
(mark humphrey/Associated Press)
UConn 76, Louisville 54
Unbeatable UConn roars to another NCAA title
UConn stalwarts Tina Charles, Maya Moore, and Renee Montgomery (left to right) jump for joy as their perfect season culminates in an NCAA championship.
(mark humphrey/Associated Press)
ST. LOUIS - All year, the University of Connecticut women's basketball team demonstrated no perceptible flaws. There were no chinks in the armor their opponents could exploit. There was only an undeniable sense of purpose that grew from a single-minded focus to hoist another NCAA championship banner to the rafters of Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn.
As the top-ranked Huskies piled up victory after victory, winning 38 in a row by an astounding average margin of 30.7 points per game, coach Geno Auriemma sensed the real story no longer was his team's pursuit of perfection, but whether or not there was anyone capable of challenging his team.
"At Connecticut," Auriemma said, "the only story is if we lose."
Last night, in the championship game of women's Final Four, there was no such news to report.
The Huskies put the finishing touches on a 39-0 season - the third perfect campaign in school history - by winning their sixth national championship (first since 2004) with a 76-54 victory over Louisville before a Scottrade Center crowd of 18,478.
"I told these guys in the locker room, ever since 1995 and the team that went 35-0, every team at Connecticut after that was compared to the 35-0 team and they couldn't handle it," Auriemma said. "And after that 2002 team [that went 39-0], every team was compared to that team.
"And now this year, after these guys ran off a bunch of wins, they had to live with the whole aura of going undefeated and winning a national championship at Connecticut."
But this team? It was largely unaffected by the raised expectations and demands of perfection.
"The more we won by, the margin of victories kept getting bigger," Auriemma said. "And the more it was expected that, well, of course they're going to win. Of course they're the best team ever. Of course, of course, of course."
Although senior guard Renee Montgomery (18 points) was the unquestioned floor leader, and sophomore power forward Maya Moore, the Associated Press Player of the Year, was the Huskies' unmistakable star, Tina Charles last night proved herself the most outstanding player of UConn's talented trio of All-Americans.
"She was great tonight," Montgomery said. "Before the game, Coach Auriemma said we really needed to establish a post game, and I think she took it personally and she came out and played great on both ends of the floor. I think it might be the best game I've seen her play in a long time."
After standing her ground in the semis against Stanford All-America junior center Jayne Appel, Charles rose to the occasion in the championship game by pouring in a game-high 25 points on 11-for-13 shooting while dominating the boards with a career-high-tying 19 rebounds (15 defensive) to help UConn outrebound Louisville, 42-38.
"I was always convinced ever since I went to Connecticut that I do have the potential to become the best center in the country, if I wanted to be," said Charles, who recorded her 13th double-double of the season and 38th of her career.
"I just needed the players around me to help me, which they always do. When I came to campus on my unofficial visit, the one thing I keyed on was just Coach saying, 'The only way you're going to play is if you work hard,' and that was something that was a challenge and I accepted it and went with it."
Charles helped the Huskies withstand a spirited Louisville start with 15 first-half points and 10 boards, good enough to spot UConn a 39-25 halftime lead.
"Tina Charles did an outstanding job of intimidating us," said Louisville coach Jeff Walz, whose team (34-5) missed its first eight shots of the second half and was unable to mount a rally like the one it used to overcome a 14-point first-half deficit in its semifinal victory over Oklahoma.
"I thought she made us alter shots that we really didn't need to alter. We had no answer for her."
Montgomery gave UConn its first 20-point advantage when she converted a pair of foul shots with 16:18 to make it 46-25. Monique Reid snapped Louisville out of its 9 1/2-minute drought by getting a layup to drop with 15:12 left.
Louisville's offensive woes were best illustrated by the struggle Angel McCoughtry (23 points on 9-for-24 shooting) had in getting her fifth field goal of the night to drop. She missed nine attempts over a stretch of 17:20 before finally knocking down a lane jumper with 14:23 to go.
UConn went on to lead by as many as 23 (66-43) when Charles tallied an easy layup underneath with 5:46 left. It was all the buffer UConn needed to punctuate its perfect season.
"There's nothing that I'm more proud of than the fact that especially these three came in every day from Sept. 1 until today, and gave me everything they had every single day," Auriemma said, nodding to his Big Three of Moore, Montgomery, and Charles. "And, like I told them, I hope I gave them as much back. Tonight we gave you the best of what we got."
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
