PALO ALTO (NCAA Women) - Geno Auriemma and Breanna Stewart must have forgotten what losing felt like heading into the new NCAA Women campaign with the University of Connecticut.
They now remember.
The top-ranked Huskies had their 47-game winning streak snapped by the No. 6 Stanford Cardinal on Monday.
Tara VanDerveer’s side won the clash of American college basketball heavyweights, 88-86, after overtime.
If this sounds familiar, it is.
UConn’s NCAA record 90 straight victory streak also came to an end in Palo Alto when Stanford beat them in 2010.
The Cardinal wouldn’t have won without Amber Orrange.
The guard drilled a game-tying three-ball with 1.4 seconds left in regulation and then hit a go-ahead jumper with 1:38 to play in the extra period.
"What I’m most proud of is the battling," VanDerveer said, "but also just the camaraderie and excitement for other people doing well.
"It really speaks about how unselfish our team is."
Auriemma and Stewart, though, rarely experience defeat.
Not only did they have their NCAA unbeaten streak before the loss to Stanford but both coach and player did nothing by win with the USA national team in Turkey at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women.
The Americans won all six of their games in a successful title defense.
The loss to Stanford put both in unfamiliar territory.
"What games like today illustrate is how damn hard it is to go undefeated," Auriemma said.
So what is the secret to beating UConn?
"They had a really great game-plan which I’m sure everybody else is going to copy: put three guys on Stewie and let everybody else shoot….," Auriemma said.
Stewart had 23 points but late in the contest wasn’t allowed by Stanford to carry the load.
FIBA
