INDIANAPOLIS — It took the best player in women’s basketball 13 minutes to shoot and 17 to score.
For as dominant as Breanna Stewart is — Saturday the Connecticut senior won the Wade Trophy honoring the nation’s player of the year for the second time — she found early foul trouble and couldn’t seem to find her way near the basket in Sunday’s Final Four semifinal matchup against Oregon State. At least not for those first 17 minutes.
It hardly mattered. UConn extended its winning streak to 74 games, crushing Oregon State 80-51. And Stewart was back to normal in the second half, finishing with 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting and eight rebounds. The three-time defending champion Huskies will play Syracuse, who defeated Washington in the second semifinal, for the national championship Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
"Getting four titles is the goal,” said Stewart in the post-game press conference. “I think it sunk in when we got to locker room. We were all excited ,and we know we have one game left. We’re exactly in the position we want to be in.”
She was a little more definitive to ESPN on the court immediately after the game: ““It’s great to be playing in the final game of my career, and we’re going to go out with a win.”
UConn will play for its 11th national title, which would be a record. History is on its side: The Huskies are 10-0 all time in championship games.
They will be without freshman starter Katie Lou Samuelson, who broke her foot in the first half. She wore a walking boot on the bench in the second.
“We’ll be all right,” coach Geno Auriemma said of Samuelson’s injury.
“We’re going to have to go to practice tomorrow and see what looks good. I thought we got great contributions today. I think we’ll look at a couple different scenarios, and depending on who we’re playing, we’ll try to put the best team out there we can.”
Auriemma doesn’t seem worried about his players physically or mentally, particularly not when his three best players are seniors, players who possibly will be the top three picks of the WNBA draft.
“I don’t know what I can do to help them except tell them, ‘This is your spot. You’ve owned this spot for the last three years, but that’s no guarantee you’re going to get it Tuesday night,’” he said. “Hopefully we’ll win. But I don’t have to help them with that mentality.”
Oregon State did an admirable job trying to take away UConn’s best option in Stewart for a while, but the Huskies’ performance speaks to the weapons on Auriemma’s roster.
Stewart had two fouls in the first 2:05 and picked up a third at the start of the third quarter. But Morgan Tuck was fine taking the lead with 21 points, 13 of which came in the first quarter. She was also 4-for-8 from three-point range. Kia Nurse, Moriah Jefferson and Gabby Williams combined for 27.
“It’s hard to not be impressed by the things that Morgan Tuck did in that first half run that we had,” Auriemma said. “That’s what stood out the most it seemed like. But in reality we talked about it after the game that was a team performance that first half. Usually when we run out to a big lead it’s because Stewie had a big run. … Everyone on the team contributed and they felt great coming out. That to me was the most impressive thing, that our team played great today.”
UConn’s victory was never in jeopardy. The Huskies led by 16 in the first quarter. Oregon State came in tied for sixth in team scoring defense in the nation at 51.2 points. UConn had 47 at the half.
The Huskies shot 56.7% from the field and got 21 points off 17 Oregon State turnovers. They also frustrated OSU’s top threat in Jamie Weisner, who had nine points and four fouls.
“They can hit from everywhere,” said Weisner. “People come off the bench. There’s no lag. ... They have no weakness. Offensively they have weapons everywhere, at every position."
