Connecticut beats Stanford 53-47 for NCAA title

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Every basket built their streak, every romp enriched their legacy.

From the first shot of the season, it seemed inevitable that Maya Moore, Tina Charles and the Connecticut Huskies would win the NCAA championship.

And so they did Tuesday night, rallying from a horrible first half to beat Stanford 53-47 for their 78th straight victory and stamp themselves as one of the most dominant teams ever - in their sport or any other, men or women.

Held to only five points through the first 12 minutes and trailing 20-12 at the break, coach Geno Auriemma's team bounced back and played like champs.

"We knew a run was coming," said Maya Moore, the tournament's outstanding player. "We settled down and hit some big shots."

Did they ever. UConn surged to start the second half, bolting to an 11-point lead.

Moore scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help Auriemma win his seventh national championship, moving within one title of Pat Summitt and Tennessee. He's never lost in the title game.

"This one was by the far the hardest and most difficult," Auriemma said. "Not because of what we went through, but we played a great team and they had a great game plan. It took everything we had to beat that team."

The Huskies (39-0) are the first team ever to have consecutive unbeaten seasons, but that doesn't cover it.

They've been unstoppable over the past two years, winning every game until Tuesday night by double figures, and passing their own NCAA women's Division I record of 70 straight wins set from 2001-03 in early March. The championship victory put them within 10 of the vaunted 88-game winning streak set by the UCLA men in the early 1970s.

Charles added nine points, 11 rebounds, and 6 blocks. The senior and Auriemma shared an embrace after the final buzzer.

The lowest-scoring game in NCAA championship game history was played in front of a crowd of 22,936 that included Vice President Joe Biden, who hugged the UConn players after the game, as well as former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. While Biden showed impartiality in his cheering, Rice was rooting on Stanford - the school at which she served as provost for six years.

She visited with the team at a morning shootaround, offering words of encouragement. Rice had hoped to see the Cardinal win their third championship and first since 1992.

Stanford (36-2) played a nearly flawless defensive first half, holding UConn to 12 points - the lowest ever in a championship game and the lowest in school history.

But then Moore and the Huskies took over.

"I've never been prouder of a group of young people," Auriemma said. "How they fought back today. It was easy for them to pack it in. People wondered 'what are you going to do the first time we're in a close game?' We reacted how champions react."

UConn opened the second half by scoring 17 of the first 19 points to take its first lead since early in the game. Moore had 11 points during the spurt, scoring from all over the court.

Her 3-pointer from the top of the key made it 23-22, giving UConn its first lead since it was 5-0. That ended a 19-minute stretch in which UConn was behind - the longest that UConn had trailed this season. The only time that the Huskies were behind longer than 10 minutes also had been against Stanford, the first time they met.

Moore followed up her 3 with a sweet jumper and a layup on the break after Charles had blocked Nnemkadi Ogwumike on the other end.

"I tried to step up and hit big shots," she said. "We're champions."

JJ Hones' 3-pointer with 11:46 left in the game cut the deficit to 29-25, but then Charles made her presence felt, scoring seven of the Huskies next nine points to make it 38-27 with 7:42 left.

Stanford would only get as close as five the rest of the way. UConn let the Cardinal close the gap late, making just 9 of 22 free throws for the game.

This was the sixth time the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the final AP Top 25 poll met for the title. The last came in 2002 when UConn beat Oklahoma in San Antonio.

Even though Stanford was second in the poll all season and its only loss came to Connecticut, it would have been a monumental upset had the Cardinal won.

The two teams have developed a cross-country rivalry over the past three seasons after Stanford beat UConn in the 2008 national semifinals. The Huskies haven't lost since, beating the Cardinal three times during that stretch.

They played back on Dec. 23 with UConn coming away with a 12-point victory. Stanford led that game by two at the half, but the Huskies went on a 30-6 run in the second half to take control.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer had talked on Monday about how important it was for her team to get out to a quick start. UConn scored the first five points, but then went over 10 minutes without one, missing 16 straight shots - including eight 3-pointers - as Stanford took a 12-5 lead.

Moore's acrobatic layup finally ended UConn's drought with 7:22 left in the half, but Jeanette Pohlen answered right back with a 3-pointer. Kayla Pedersen's 3-pointer made it 18-9 - the biggest deficit UConn had faced the entire season.

In the second half, though, Stanford couldn't hold on.

Pedersen led the Cardinal with 15 points and 17 rebounds. Nnemkadi Ogwumike, who had 38 points in the national semifinals, added 11 points and 13 boards.

"Twelve 12 points in the first half was extremely helpful for us, but we weren't able to capitalize," Pedersen said. "We kept fighting, kept fighting and things weren't falling for us. We needed to make our own run and we didn't really do that."

Jayne Appel, who came into the game with an injured ankle, was ineffective going scoreless. The senior missed all 12 of her shots.