(AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
UConn took advantage of a cold streak by the Cats to jump out to a 48-26 first-half lead. The margin proved too much to overcome and Kentucky’s season comes to an end in the Elite Eight. A’dia Mathies led the Cats with 14 points in her final game as a Wildcat.
Here is the story from UK Athletics.com.
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) – Connecticut is headed back to a familiar place – the Final Four.
Breanna Stewart scored 21 points and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis added 17 to help top-seed UConn rout Kentucky 83-53 on Monday night and advance to a record sixth-straight national semifinal.
The Huskies will face either Notre Dame or Duke in the national semifinals on Sunday in New Orleans. The Irish and Blue Devils play Tuesday night. UConn (33-4) broke a tie with Stanford (2008-12), LSU (2004-08) and itself (2000-04) by reaching the Final Four again.
It was the second straight season that UConn beat Kentucky in the regional finals. The Huskies topped the Wildcats by 15 last year 105 miles to the north of Bridgeport in Kingston, R.I.
This game wasn’t as close. Kentucky stayed close for the first 10 minutes with their “40 minutes of dread” defense. Then UConn turned up its own defensive intensity.
The Huskies trailed 23-22 with just 9 minutes left in the first half. That’s when Stewart – honored as the outstanding player of the Bridgeport Regional – and UConn’s “no-name” defense took over allowing three points the rest of the half. Kentucky missed 13 of its final 14 shots in the half with the only make coming when Jelleah Sidney banked in a 3-pointer from the wing.
While UConn was playing lockdown defense, Stewart was dominating on the offensive end. The 6-foot-4 star, who was the national high school player of the year last season, scored nine points and had a vicious two-handed block during that closing run.
After Sidney’s 3-pointer, Stewart calmly converted a three-point play on the other end. UConn led 48-26 at the half.
Kentucky couldn’t get within 20 in the second half.
The loudest cheer of the night from the sellout crowd of nearly 8,600 came when the video board showed highlights of Louisville’s upset victory over Baylor on Sunday night.
UConn’s only losses this season came to Baylor and three times to Notre Dame.
Stewart didn’t play well in most of those losses, but really has stepped her game up over the past few weeks. After struggling through the middle part of the season, the heralded first-year has averaged 16.4 points since the start of the Big East tournament.
It’s been an unusual season for UConn, which for the first time in 19 years didn’t win either the Big East regular season or tournament title. Now the Huskies are two wins away from an eighth national championship.
This was the 19th time in the past 23 seasons that UConn had reached the regional final. They have made the Final Four 14 times overall, including the last six.
None of the regional final games during this current run have been close with only Rutgers coming within 10 in 2008. UConn’s lead ballooned to 36 points in the second half of this game. When the final buzzer sounded Mosqueda-Lewis jumped into the arms of Stewart to celebrate.
Coach Geno Auriemma got a gritty effort out of junior center Stefanie Dolson, who has a stress fracture in her right ankle and an injured left foot as well. She wore a brace on her left leg and a compression sock on her right one. While she only scored two points, she had 11 rebounds and four assists.
The loss brought to a close a record year for the Wildcats (30-5). Kentucky had the most victories in school history. Not bad for a school rich in basketball tradition on the men’s side. Still coach Matthew Mitchell was left searching for the school’s first trip to the Final Four.
The Wildcats have made the NCAA tournament in each of the past four seasons and reached the regional finals in three of those years falling short each time.
Senior A’dia Mathies, the two-time SEC player of the year, had a quiet game scoring only 14 points with 11 of them coming in the second half. Kastine Evans, who hit the big 3-pointer to help beat Delaware in the regional semifinals had just two points on 1 of 9 shooting. Her older brother R.J., who played on the UConn’s men’s basketball team this season, sat behind the Wildcats bench in a Kentucky shirt.
The Huskies have won 43 of their past 44 NCAA games in the state of Connecticut, including going 9-1 in Bridgeport. The lone blemish came against Duke in 2006 in the regional final.
KENTUCKY vs CONNECTICUT
4/1/13 7:35pm at Bridgeport, Conn. – Webster Bank Arena
At Bridgeport, Conn. – Webster Bank Arena
CONNECTICUT 83, KENTUCKY 53
KENTUCKY (30-6)
Mathies, A’dia 4-9 4-6 14; O’Neill, Jennifer 5-12 2-3 13; Stallworth,
DeNesha 4-12 1-2 9; Goss, Bria 2-8 2-2 6; Sidney, Jelleah 2-5 0-0 5; Walker,
Samarie 0-1 2-2 2; Thompson, Janee 1-5 0-0 2; Evans, Kastine 1-9 0-0 2;
Bishop, Azia 0-0 0-0 0; Henderson, Brittany 0-0 0-0 0; Pinkett, Bernisha 0-1
0-0 0. Totals 19-62 11-15 53.
CONNECTICUT (33-4)
STEWART, Breanna 8-14 5-6 21; MOSQUEDA-Lewis, K. 6-11 2-3 17; FARIS, Kelly
3-4 6-6 12; HARTLEY, Bria 3-10 4-4 10; JEFFERSON, Moriah 5-7 0-0 10; TUCK,
Morgan 1-3 4-4 6; DOTY, Caroline 1-1 0-0 3; DOLSON, Stefanie 1-4 0-0 2;
STOKES, Kiah 1-1 0-0 2; BUCK, Heather 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-56 21-23 83.
KENTUCKY…………………. 26 27 – 53
CONNECTICUT………………. 48 35 – 83
3-point goals–KENTUCKY 4-16 (Mathies, A’dia 2-3; Sidney, Jelleah 1-3;
O’Neill, Jennifer 1-4; Thompson, Janee 0-1; Evans, Kastine 0-2; Goss, Bria
0-2; Stallworth, DeNesha 0-1), CONNECTICUT 4-11 (MOSQUEDA-Lewis, K. 3-6;
DOTY, Caroline 1-1; HARTLEY, Bria 0-2; TUCK, Morgan 0-1; STEWART, Breanna
0-1). Fouled out–KENTUCKY-None, CONNECTICUT-None. Rebounds–KENTUCKY 33
(Stallworth, DeNesha 8), CONNECTICUT 41 (DOLSON, Stefanie 11).
Assists–KENTUCKY 9 (Evans, Kastine 3), CONNECTICUT 12 (DOLSON, Stefanie 4).
Total fouls–KENTUCKY 20, CONNECTICUT 18. Technical fouls–KENTUCKY-None,
CONNECTICUT-None. A-8594
2013 NCAA Women’s Basketball Bridgeport Regional Final
Winner advances to the Final Four
UConn advances to 2013 Final Four
Team Records and Series Notes
Connecticut improves to 33-4, while Kentucky concludes its season at 30-6.
The 2012-13 season was the most successful in program history with school records of 30 wins and eight victories over top-25 opponents. The Wildcats tied a school-record with 13 Southeastern Conference wins and advanced to their school-record fourth Elite Eight in the last four years, including second straight.
UK has charted 25 or more wins in a school-record four straight seasons.
Kentucky completed its 39th year of varsity play and now has an overall record of 686-477 (.590).
Seniors A’dia Mathies and Brittany Henderson leave as the winningest class in UK Hoops history with a 111-30 record (.787).
Mitchell is now 174-91 (.657) overall, 144-62 (.699) at UK. He is UK’s all-time winningest coach.
The Cats made their 10th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and are own a 14-10 (.583) record, including 0-4 in the regional finals.
Mitchell is now 10-4 in the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats are now 65-200 against ranked foes, including 8-5 this seasons.
UK is 24-33 vs. the ranked under Mitchell.
UK is now 1-4 all-time vs. Connecticut, 0-2 in the NCAA Tournament, and 71-34 vs. teams from the Big East Conference.
UK’s 53 points are the lowest since scoring 50 vs. South Carolina on Jan. 24, 2013.
UK shot just 30.6 percent, its second-lowest mark of the season. The lowest was 27.1 percent vs. top-ranked Baylor on Nov. 13, 2012.
Team/Game Notes
UK’s starting lineup featured A’dia Mathies, Kastine Evans, Jennifer O’Neill, Samarie Walker and DeNesha Stallworth. This lineup went 10-3.
After a layup from Stallworth to give the Wildcats a 23-22 lead with 10:08 left in the first half, UConn went on a 26-3 run to end the half, taking a 48-26 advantage into the locker room.
UK forced 18 turnovers giving the Cats 853 on the year, which is the second-most school history.
The Cats have now forced double-digit miscues in 153 consecutive games. The Cats are 115-38 during that span.
With four made 3-pointers, the Cats added to their school record with 240.
Kentucky recorded five blocks, upping its single-season record total to 181.
The Wildcats extended their streak of consecutive games with a triple to 328.
UK had nine steals, totaling 429 on the season, breaking the school record of 422 set last season.
Individual Notes
Redshirt sophomore point guard Jennifer O’Neill scored in double figures for the 19th time this season, including fifth straight game.
Named to the Bridgeport Regional All-Tournament Team after averaging a team-high 16.0 points over the two games.
Finished the season ranked fourth on the single season 3-point field goals made list with 67.
Senior guard A’dia Mathies scored a team-high 14 points, reaching double figures for the 33rd time this season.
Mathies ends her career as UK’s all-time leader in steals (320), games played (140) and started (139), while ranking second in scoring (2,014), 3-point field goals made (177) and field goals attempted (1,687), third in field goals made (712), free throws made (413) and attempted (590) and ninth in assists (349)
Senior forward Brittany Henderson finishes her career second all-time in games played with 136. She scored 395 and grabbed 466 rebounds.
Junior forward Samarie Walker recorded three rebounds and two blocks, finishing the season tied for second on the single-season blocks list with 56 and tied for seventh in rebounds with 293.
Junior center DeNesha Stallworth grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
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