UConn, Auriemma learn to lose after 111 wins

“I was in shock,” William said. “I’m still in shock.”

“We beat the greatest team of all time with the best coach of all time,” coach Vic Schaefer said.

Back home in Connecticut it was past midnight and already April Fools’ Day, but this was no prank. A team that had lost to UConn by 60 points in the 2016 NCAA tournament had done what most had seen as impossible.

“They deserved to win,” Auriemma said. “They beat us. “It’s the worst feeling imaginable.” Yet as Auriemma walked toward Schaefer to shake his hand, there the UConn coach was, smiling. It was the damnedest sight.

“Things happen for a reason,” Auriemma said after UConn’s dreams of a 12th national title ended with this 66-64 loss. “I just kind of shook my head. This kid [William] has had an incredible run. When it went in, it was almost like, of course. Of course, it’s going to go in.

“Look, nobody’s won more than we’ve won. I understand losing, believe it or not. We haven’t lost in a while, but I understand it. I know how to appreciate when other people win.”

The littlest player had taken down the biggest, baddest team in women’s college basketball history. She ended UConn’s record winning streak of 111 games. She ended UConn’s streak of four consecutive national titles. William has dedicated this spring to her late father who taught her the game she so loves. She scored 41 points to beat Baylor in the Elite Eight. Hit a lot of big shots.

“Ain’t any bigger shots than the one she hit tonight,” Schaefer said. Ain’t that the truth? Yet there was a larger truth at work in the closing weeks of a season that had begun with many questions and appeared to be ending like so many UConn seasons. That, of course, was with the Huskies holding the national championship trophy aloft.

This team was beatable. Yes, extremely talented, yet young and beatable. And in the end, despite their 36-0 start, despite all their beautiful momentum, these Huskies were beaten. All those warnings that this team might not be ready to fully replace Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck were not idle chatter. They were truth.

“We didn’t have the kind of maturity that you need to win at this level at this time of year,” Auriemma said. “Some of our young guys got a little bit ahead of themselves.”

Mississippi State pressured the ball. The Bulldogs sped up the game, disrupted UConn’s rhythm. They forced the Huskies to put the ball on the floor and create. On the offensive end, they had bigs like Teaira McCowan and Chinwe Okorie to pound inside, create all sorts of second-chance points and put people in foul trouble.

Williams, with 21 points, eight rebounds and four blocks, demonstrated superior athleticism. She created so much on her own. Sophomore Napheesa Collier struggled. Nurse, a junior, didn’t have a great game. Sophomore Katie Lou Samuelson struggled for much of the night before making some big shots near the end. Ultimately, Chong, the only senior who played regularly, made the biggest blunder of them all.

“I’ve been talking about it all year,” Auriemma said. “We’ve been playing way above our experience level. Tonight it caught up to us.”

The Huskies fell behind by 16 in the first half and at no time during the 111-game winning streak had they trailed by more than 11. Still, all the problems of the night stood to be erased with 26 seconds left.

That’s when Dominique Dillingham brought her arm up into Samuelson’s throat in the lane. After the video was reviewed a flagrant foul was assessed. Samuelson made both free throws to tie the game and UConn got the ball back.

And that’s when Chong turned the corner off a screen at the foul line. There was still more than 12 seconds left on the game clock. She careened to the hoop off balance and forced something, a shot that never elevated, an errant pass, something that went wildly out of bounds.

“That wasn’t Plan A,” Auriemma said. “There’s a kid trying to win the game. We go over that scenario a thousand times. It’s the easiest thing to do. Look at the clock. Every day in practice we said, it’s usually not the shot you take that makes it, it’s the offensive rebound. We just want enough time for that.”

When the Huskies eliminated Mississippi State in the Sweet 16 last year in Bridgeport, they were up 61-12 at halftime.

As Auriemma said earlier this season, a lot of teams would be looking for payback. The Bulldogs went back to Starkville. They hung No. 60 in the weight room.

“It was personal,” said Victoria Vivians, who led the Bulldogs with 19 points.

Mississippi State got 21 more shots than UConn. The Bulldogs forced 17 turnovers. The Huskies had only 11 assists.

“Our strategy was you can’t let them do what they want to do,” Schaefer said. “There’s not a lot of teams out there doing what we do defensively, trying to push you out, guard, all that. But that’s the way we play.”

So the team with no All-Americans shocked all of America by jamming the great machine, the beautiful machine. And then Itty Bitty rose up to slay the giant.

Geno could only smile.