DePaul-UCONN: No. 1 Huskies Defeated by Blue Demons...Almost

The DePaul women's basketball team played a great game on Saturday night and came within seconds of outlasting the No. 1 UCONN Huskies.  As the Blue Demons built a seventeen point lead in the second half, sloppy play by UCONN and questionable calls by the officials seemed to be setting the stage for a disappointing loss for Connecticut. 

For those of you who did not see the game on television, the UCONN players seemed out of sync throughout the game.  They had no flow to their offense and could not get the ball inside to 6'4" Tina Charles, who had no trouble with 6'7" Sylvia Fowles of LSU on Monday. 

Meanwhile, DePaul shot the lights in the first half, resulting in a twelve point lead at halftime.  UCONN's turnover troubles and poor shooting continued early in the second half and DePaul's lead grew to seventeen points.

Then something happened: Maya Moore stepped up (finally) and made some key plays. 

Chris Daily, UCONN Associate Head Coach, said at the start of the second half that Moore had spent most of the first half on the bench because her head was not in the game and she was ineffective.  But in the second half, Moore showed why she should be freshman of the year. She defended, passed, scored, and hustled on both ends of the court.

UCONN guard, Renee Montgomery, also picked up her shooting in the second half and hit two long three-point shots.  Center Tina Charles got offensive rebounds and Charde Houston was once again looking like a key contributor to the team.  Against LSU, Houston mostly sat on the bench as she seemed unable to defend and unable to set picks.  But against DePaul, she hustled down the court and got a great pass from Swanier for a layup. She rebounded, defended well, and drove to the basket—she's pretty much unstoppable when she drives to the hoop (without traveling).

So UCONN slowly reduced the DePaul lead. 

They were down 14.  They were down 11. Then they were back to being down by 14.  UCONN pressed and got a turnover.  UCONN pressed and Allie Quigley dribbled right up the court and scored.

It seemed as though DePaul had the answer to UCONN's press, so Auriemma called it off, and his team played tough half-court defense and kept Quigley and her teammates from getting off easy shots. It helped that DePaul shooters cooled off considerably near the end of the game even when they were open.

UCONN tied the game and Allie Quigley went right down court, dribbled toward the basket, dribbled back out again, and then put a great move on Renee Montgomery to get open for a tricky and very impressive floater, which went in the basket.

DePaul was ahead again and UCONN called a time-out to set up their last chance shot.

Renee Montgomery ended up with the ball and was attempting a tough and maybe desperate shot—and then a foul was called on Allie Quigley.  DePaul coach Doug Bruno yelled to the refs that the foul came after the shot, but Montgomery was awarded three free throws, which would have put UCONN ahead had she made them. 

Instead, UCONN would be down by a point and chaos ensued.

Montgomery is an excellent free-throw shooter, but she looked like she was exhausted from the energy it had taken to come back from seventeen points down.  She missed the first shot.  She made the second.  She missed the third shot and it seemed like DePaul would get the rebound.  But Charde Houston somehow got a hand in and hit the ball up in the air. There was chaos as the ball was heading toward half-court with DePaul players in the best position to pick it up.

DePaul's Dimitaio got control of the ball and dribbled over half-court...and kept going, as though she was thinking she could score on a fast break and ice the game. She really should have dribbled away from the pursuing UCONN players and away from the basket. But victory was in hand and a fast break layup would have iced the game. 

Unfortunately for DePaul, Maya Moore caught up to Dimitaio and swatted the ball away.  Moore got control of the ball and promptly called a time-out with 7.2 seconds left on the clock. 

What a heads up play.

This was UCONN's last timeout and it gave the Huskies a chance to set up a play for the last shot of the game.

UCONN inbounded the ball to Ketia Swanier, who dribbled the length of the court at full speed, which is fast.  She outran her defender and did what she has done on many occasions throughout the season—she drove to the basket, somehow avoided a block by DePaul's center, and hit a layup with 1.6 seconds remaining in the game.

DePaul made the final 1.6 interesting but could not score, and UCONN prevailed. 

What a tough loss for DePaul. They played so well for 35 minutes, but could not outlast the UCONN team down the stretch.  I can tell you that UCONN fans were sweating and shaking in their slippers as they watched the game on Connecticut Public Television.

Whew, that was a tough one for both teams.  A tough comeback win for UCONN and a tough defeat for DePaul, which came sooooo close to upsetting the No. 1 team in the country.  It sure was fun to watch!