Sports: UConn women beat Duke 72-59 and advance to Albany Regional final
Nurse, Williams supply spark as Huskies beat Duke in the Sweet 16
Albany, N.Y. — There was a great deal to be said for the Duke backcourt and its vast experience, featuring a pair of fifth-year seniors.
UConn doesn't have that. What it does have, however, is the senior tandem of Gabby Williams and Kia Nurse, who had all the know-how and ingenuity required Saturday with the game on the line in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA women's basketball tournament's Albany Regional.
"(Gabby) plays at a certain level every big game," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "And Kia's one of the toughest competitors we've ever had. ... You need players that know how to win. They certainly know what needs to be done."
The dynamic Williams finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocked shots and Nurse, the ever-calming presence, finished with 10 points and four assists, as top-seeded UConn
advanced to the regional final with a 72-59 victory over No. 5 Duke before 10,658 fans at the Times Union Center.
UConn (35-0) will play No. 2 South Carolina (29-6) in the Elite Eight on Monday (7 p.m., ESPN), with a berth in the Final Four at stake in Columbus, Ohio. UConn is bidding for its unprecedented 11th straight Final Four berth. South Carolina is the defending national champion.
The Huskies marked Duke's polished, fifth-year guard duo of Lexie Brown and Rebecca Greenwell, limiting them to 16 points combined, and forced the Blue Devils into scoring droughts for significant periods of
time.
That effort was led by stalwarts Nurse and Williams — the last two American Athletic Conference defensive players of the year — who are now 147-2 in their UConn careers.
Meanwhile, an electrified Williams hit a buzzer beater to end the first half for UConn, with the Huskies leading 40-20 following an eight-point run. Williams' pull-up jump shot came after back-to-back 3-pointers by Nurse and Katie Lou Samuelson.
"She always does," Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said in responding to a comment that Williams did a little bit of everything. "I think I'm going to echo (ESPN announcer) Jay Bilas. Jay Bilas loves her. I'm going to go with him and be in that club, the Gabby Williams fan club, because I think not only is she so consistent, but she just doesn't bat an eye to anything. She competes at an Olympic level of focus. "She was a big problem for us." Nurse spoke just Friday of landing back in the Albany Regional after playing in the same building as a freshman and earning what was then her first trip to the Final Four.
"Every day I look back and think that freshman year was yesterday and I'm still kind of learning the ropes, but not anymore," Nurse said. "This has been full circle, coming back here, coming back to this facility. Things have flown by so fast."
It was Nurse who banked in a 3-point field goal to start the game against Duke and the Huskies were off to a 7-0 lead, prompting a Duke timeout.
The Huskies led 20-14 after one quarter and outscored Duke 20-6 in the second quarter.
In the third, Duke used an 11-2 run to pull within 44-31 on a layup by Erin Mathias.
But the Blue Devils went the final 5 minute, 9 seconds of the quarter without scoring, as UConn pushed the lead back to 20 on consecutive putbacks by Azurá Stevens.
Napheesa Collier led UConn with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Samuelson had 15 points, including four 3-point field goals. Stevens, who transferred from Duke following her sophomore year and was playing her old team for the first time, had eight points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
"I think you've just got to be prepared for all 40 minutes and I think as you make runs, Connecticut is very good about responding to that," McCallie said. "They're in terrific shape. They can play forever."
"I think we were just trying to win the game a little too quickly and all at once, so at the end of the second quarter we just started taking it one possession at a time and started building our momentum," said Williams, who had six points in the second quarter and punctuated the half with a fist pump. "... That (buzzer beater) was kind of a good way to go into halftime." v.fulkerson@theday.com