Sports

Marquee match-up turns into UConn romp

Womenis Top 25
Christian Schmidt

The nation has a new No. 1 team. Connecticut, the reigning national champions, are finally the top-ranked team in the nation. The Lady Huskies received all 44 first-place votes. Duke fell to No. 2 in the poll.

Following a 77-65 win over then-No. 1 Duke, UConn now boasts a 59-game winning streak, the longest ever in Division I womenis basketball. Duke had held the top spot for the first 12 weeks of the poll.

Connecticut lost four starters from its national championship squad, returning only junior guard Diana Taurasi. But a highly touted freshman class and a group of veteran backups has provided the firepower the Lady Huskies needed to keep their streak going.

Connecticut, the only remaining undefeated team in the nation, has to be the odds-on favorite to win the national championship for the second consecutive year.

The game

What was billed as a match-up for the ages didnit turn out to be that exciting. Seemingly nervous and out of sorts, the Lady Blue Devils let UConn jump out to a 10-point lead in the first few minutes. The Lady Huskies continued their torrid pace, increasing their lead to 28 points in the second half.

In the second half, Duke mounted a comeback, using a 30-11 run to close within nine points. Missed layups and defensive lapses ended any chance the Lady Devils had of further closing the gap.

Taurasi and freshman Ann Strother paced the Lady Huskies with 17 points each. Duke All-American Alana Beard had 26 points in the contest, 17 of them coming in the final 10 minutes of the contest.

The rest

This week was an uneventful one in the top 25, with little movement aside from the switch in the top two teams. Boston College jumped into the No. 23 spot after being previously unranked. Nine teams maintained their spots from last weekis rankings, and no team moved more than five spots.

A freshman shall lead them

No. 4 Tennessee was down by 16 points to No. 17 Vanderbilt at one point. Then the Lady Volunteers settled down to business. Freshman backup Shana Zolman and senior guard Kara Lawson erupted for 20 and 26 points, respectively, leading Tennessee to an 81-67 victory over the Lady Commodores in Nashville, Tenn.

Vanderbilt was looking to get its second consecutive home victory over the Lady Vols, but fell short as Tennessee stormed out in the second half, erasing a three-point deficit and never looking back.

The win improved Tennesseeis record to 18-3 overall and a perfect 7-0 in Southeastern Conference play and dropped Vanderbilt to 13-7 overall and just 3-4 in conference.

The Minnesota defense

The Lady Golden Gophers were struggling to produce any offense, so they decided to concentrate on the defensive end and shut down Northwestern, holding the Lady Wildcats to 23 points in the second half.

No. 15 Minnesota went on to win the game, beating Northwestern 67-56 Sunday to improve its record to 16-3 overall, 5-3 in the Big Ten. Northwestern dropped to 6-15 overall and 1-9 in conference play.

Minnesotais Corrin Von Wald scored 25 points in the game. Nineteen of those points came in the first half, as Von Wald kept the Lady Gophers with a seven-point lead going into the locker room at halftime.

In Texas

Texas Tech just keeps on winning. Led by the play of Plenette Pierson, who averaged 30.5 points in two games last week, the Lady Red Raiders improved their record to 18-2 this season and 7-1 in Big 12 Conference play. Texas Tech won games over Missouri and Kansas by an average of more than 30 points.

Texas Tech head coach Marsha Sharp needs just three wins to reach the 500 mark for her career.

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