Losing streaks have become a thing of the past for UConn women

Huskies haven’t lost back-to-back games in ... ready ...10,000 days

The sun rose on the cold Thursday morning of March 18, 1993.

The previous night the UConn women's basketball team's 1992-93 campaign came to an end with a loss 74-71 loss to Louisville in an NCAA Tournament Mideast Regional firstround game at Gampel Pavilion. The Huskies, who were coming off a loss to Providence in the Big East Tournament semifinals, finished 18-11.

Since, UConn has won at least 25 games every season and reached the NCAA Sweet 16 when the tournament was played. There's one thing the Huskies haven't done since March 17, 1993: Lost back-to-back games.

On Sunday, it will be 10,000 days since that night in Storrs when Kelly Rose scored 27 points and led a late Louisville rally. Jamelle Elliott had 21 points and 15 rebounds off the bench for UConn.

“Ten thousand days? That's a long time,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “And like I've said 10,000 times, if it was easy lots of people would be doing it. It's a lot to be proud of. One of a bunch of things we're proud of over the last 30 years.”

The Huskies will take a streak of 993 games without consecutive losses into next season. Since the start of the 1993-94 season, they are 929-64 (.936) and, obviously, 64-0 following a loss.

No one else is close.

“I certainly laugh whenever I read UConn game notes and see the nugget for last back-to-back losses,” said former UConn star and Naismith Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo, who had nine points and five rebounds in that 1993 Louisville loss.

Eight times UConn has beaten a ranked team to keep its back-to-back streak alive, including four Top 10 opponents. The highest-ranked team the Huskies got past coming off a loss was No. 4 Duke in the 1998-99 opener in San Jose, California. They also beat No. 7 Notre Dame in South Bend on Jan. 12, 2005, No. 7 Rutgers at the XL Center in Hartford on Feb. 3, 2005, and No. 10 Stanford at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 12, 2017.

The closest game following a loss was a one-point win at Rutgers on Jan. 27, 1999, though South Florida took UConn to overtime on Dec. 1, 2004, at Gampel Pavilion with the streak on the line but won by 10.

“It's not even fathomable to put this into perspective,” veteran UConn radio play-by-play man Bob Joyce said. “It just isn't supposed to hap

pen. To go 10,000 days plus without losing back-to-back games may be the single most impressive number of a program full of ridiculous records.”

As the streak reaches 10,000 days, here's a look back at five close calls (in chronological order) over the last 27 seasons:

1. vs. Holy Cross (Nov. 14, 1997). The Huskies seemed well on their way to a win in their season and Preseason WNIT opener at Gampel Pavilion with a 23-point lead and 6:21 to go. But Holy Cross and Amy O'Brien weren't going to go home without a fight.

O'Brien had nine points in a 14-0 run in a three-minute stretch to get the Crusaders back within single figures. The Huskies had no answer for O'Brien. She finished with 38 points, a record for a UConn opponent though UConn held on for an 87-76 win.

The scene best remembered was Auriemma calling out to Stacy Hansmeyer to overplay O'Brien to her dominant left hand: “Her left, Stacy, not yours.”

2. at Rutgers (Jan. 27, 1999). With injuries sidelining four of their top six players and coming off their first loss to Boston College in nine years, the Huskies traveled to Rutgers. No Shea Ralph, no Swin Cash, no Sue Bird, no Amy Duran. But they had Svetlana Abrosimova.

With UConn down one, Abrosimova stole Tasha Pointer's inbounds pass at midcourt. While her layup bid was blocked, the Huskies had possession. She would then track down a miss by Asjha Jones and score on a leaner in the lane with 43.6 seconds left and UConn held on for a 56-55 win.

“Coach said we needed a steal,” Abrosimova said. “It was a bad pass.

The Rutgers player wasn't expecting it. I was.”

3. vs. USF (Dec. 1, 2004). Coming off a loss to North Carolina, the Huskies fell into an 11-point hole before bouncing back for a four-point halftime lead. It stayed close with South Florida forced the first overtime game at Gampel Pavilion with 22.6 seconds left as Anedra Gilmore buried an off-balance 3-pointer as the shot clock ran out.

Barbara Turner missed a shot at the buzzer to win it. But the Cleveland native then scored eight of her game-high 23 points in the extra session as a 10-0 run allowed UConn to beat the Bulls 75-65.

“Everyone is going to play us like South Florida did,” Turner said. “When they play other teams, they don't make the shots they made tonight.”

4. at Texas (Feb. 12, 2006). UConn's first visit to Austin looked like it would be a success as the Huskies jumped on the Longhorns quick and maintained their advantage. Kalana Greene's backdoor layup put them up by 18 with 9:05 left.

But UConn's offense then went more south than Texas and the Longhorns (12-10) made things interesting, holding the Huskies without a basket for more than seven minutes and cutting the deficit to six. But Ann Strother, who missed a key shot in a loss to Rutgers five days earlier, hit a 3-pointer with 1:38 to go and UConn went home with a 71-58 victory.

“At that moment of the game they're going to complete their run or you'll do something to seal the deal,” Strother said. “It feels good to have stepped up and made a shot like that.”

5. at USF (Feb. 16, 2020). The Huskies have never lost to USF, but the Bulls were primed for the upset playing at home and with UConn coming off an 18-point beating at No. 1 South Carolina six days earlier.

USF led by as many as eight before settling for a four-point edge at halftime, marking the second time in their American Athletic Conference history the Huskies trailed at the break. UConn started the third quarter strong, then dominated the Bulls in the fourth quarter to win going away 67-47 in Tampa. Megan Walker had 21 points and Olivia Nelson-Ododa 20 for UConn.

The teams' next two meetings would not be as close as the Huskies rolled to 41-point wins in the regular season finale in Hartford and in the AAC Tournament semifinals at Mohegan Sun Arena.