For one game, UConn didn’t have answers

DALLAS >> Perhaps the most impressive part of what transpired over the last five and a half months was best captured by the astonishment after the UConn women’s basketball team finally lost a game.

If it were revealed that the Huskies would fall in overtime to a top 10 ranked team in the national semifinals in year one following the graduation of the Huskies’ iconic Big 3 when the team gathered for the first official practice back in October, many would have viewed that at a reasonable final act for this talented but untested team.

Instead, when Mississippi State junior guard Morgan William dropped a 14-foot jump shot over the outstretched hand of UConn’s Gabby Williams and through the basket as time expired, the shock reverberated far past those in

attendance at American Airlines Center on Friday night.

“I know how much they put into all of this,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said after the Huskies’ NCAA alldivision basketball record 111-game winning streak was snapped with a Mississippi State’s 66-64 victory. “I know how hard they worked, I know how much they changed since October 15, how many great things they’ve done, how much they’ve grown. We went though an amazing season. Every day was another record, an unbelievable thing at UConn and all the attention we brought so part of me is disappointed for them.

“You always want to win a national championship but how many is one person entitled to? If this was going to be our first, it would be a lot different. If we had five seniors and they were all graduating, I’d feel really bad for them right now. Sometimes you aren’t ready and sometimes things happen in a game that you can’t deal with.”

If designing the blueprint to beating this UConn team it would begin with having size to control the boards and keep Napheesa Collier and Williams from scoring in the lane, stopping the Huskies from getting out in transition would be paramount and having players who can create their own shot would be of paramount importance.

The Bulldogs led 18-4 in second-chance points, 14-6 in offensive rebounds 28-20 in points in the paint and 7-4 in points off turnovers.

“Here and there we were able to get into rhythm,” said Williams, who led the Huskies with 21 points. “It came in spurts, but they did a good job of disrupting whatever we were doing. They weren’t making anything easy for us. We are not used to that, and it kind of hit us by surprise.”

If there was one play which typified how the Bulldogs played against the team which handed them a 60-point loss in the 2016 NCAA tournament, it came when UConn’s emotional leader Kia Nurse grabbed a defensive rebound only to have Teaira McCowan rip the ball out of Nurse’s hands and then in one motion went up and hit a key basket. Those are the kinds of plays the Huskies are used to making.

“In the first half we got punched and didn’t know what to do,” Collier said. “They came out really aggressive

and played from the very beginning of the game. In second half we came out a lot better, playing more like our (style of) basketball and made the plays that we needed to.”

There just weren’t enough of them.

A 3-pointer by Katie Lou Samuelson, a pair of free throws by Saniya Chong followed by a steal and layup gave the Huskies the threepoint lead with 2:33 left in regulation. Despite all their struggles, UConn was in position to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as it did in down to the wire affairs against Florida State and Tulane. But Mississippi State wasn’t going away that easily.

“They played like it was their game to win,” Williams said. “They came out and they were aggressive and forced us to do what they wanted us to do and they disrupted our offense.”

A major part of the defensive game plan was to put the 6-foot-7 McCowan on Williams in the high post. Bulldogs’ coach Vic Schaefer knew there would be times when Williams would blow by her for layups but so much of UConn’s offense runs through Williams and especially her ability to pass the ball. With McCowan clogging up Williams’ passing options, the Huskies’ normally free flowing offense was stuck in neutral for much of the game.

“It wouldn’t have been a problem as much because we couldn’t get Pheesa and Lou untracked,” Auriemma said. “The fact that Gabby had to do so much, the fact that she was taking so many shots and was the only one who was able to come up with the kind of opportunities that we needed from other players, that was a problem and we knew early on that was a problem.”

Auriemma has lost 18 games in the NCAA tournament and seven of them have come in the national semifinals including Auriemma’s last four NCAA tourney losses.

“More times than not, the same thread that goes through all of them, going all the way back to 96, the semifinals in 96, going back to 91 to you walk out there and chalk it up to, we are not good enough to win this national championship, not the way we are constructed right now,” Auriemma said. “After we win in ‘95, you come back in ‘96 and go ‘you know what, we don’t have enough players. We got here on the strength of Jen (Rizzotti), Jamelle (Elliott), Kesha (Sales) but we don’t have enough players.

After that we come back and win in 2000. Why? Because we had (six) first-round draft choices. In 2001, I look back and who is supposed to even be in the Final Four losing two All-Americans (Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph to injury), then we get there we are up 10 and you are shocked when reality catches up.

“You need to come here and better have all the pieces you need to win. You have to have some depth to sub, you have to have enough size, you have to have enough maturity to have been there and sacrificed and know what it is like to have won here or you have lost and go OK, this is what I do with that. This team had none of that.”

In the locker room Auriemma told his devastated players that there will come a time they can appreciate all that the team accomplished during the season but he knows it is going to take a while.

“This stings and will hurt for a long time,” Williams said. “I am really proud of what we did this year. I am really proud of the guys that stepped up. I think it just shows what kind of future we have.”

Saniya Chong is the only player in the regular rotation graduating. Duke transfer Azura Stevens, who would have been in the conversation for All-Americans had she been eligible with add size and versatility. Kentucky transfer Batouly Camara will give the Huskies another post player while national high school player of the year Megan Walker highlights a top-notch recruiting class. Depth or a lack of depth was an Achilles’ heel of this UConn team and that won’t be an issue moving forward.

Still, that doesn’t help ease the pain. The knowledge that UConn was part of what figures to be one of the most talked about women’s college basketball games in recent memory and according to ESPN, the most streamed women’s Final Four game ever is also of little consolation for the players who were so close to leading the Huskies to an unprecedented fifth straight national title.

“I didn’t care when people said we were ruining basketball anyway and I didn’t want us to lose so people like basketball better,” Collier said. “I am sure it was a great game to watch and I am sure people are happy we lost but we wanted to come out with the win.

“I personally hadn’t lost a game here so it is my first loss and I can’t believe it happened.”