TAMPA — Another staggering piece of history for Connecticut wasn’t etched into the record books with the smooth style and blowout ease of so many epic moments for the Huskies.
This one was a 40-minute grinder, closer than expected and missing the typical UConn knockout punch well into the second half.
Notre Dame kept hanging around with some scrappy, stubborn defense, and by getting the ball in the paint to freshman Brianna Turner.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis struck the decisive blows for UConn, with seven points in a 12-4 run in the final five minutes. Three-pointers by Kia Nurse and Moriah Jefferson in that stretch also helped punctuate the 10th national title for the Huskies.
UConn 63, Notre Dame 53.
“I definitely had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to go out with a national championship, and being able to hold that trophy at the end of the game and end my senior year the way I wanted to — and the way any basketball player wants to — that was amazing,” said Mosqueda-Lewis.
She joins Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Tamika Williams and Diana Taurasi, among others, in experiencing the finest of farewells to the college game.
“These guys made some plays in the second half that showed our true character,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said.
The win also marks the second three-peat for the Huskies — the first stretched from 2002 to 2004. The only other time that happened in the NCAA period was Tennessee, from 1996 to 1998. (The AIAW three-peats took place at the dawn of the officially organized college game — Immaculata 1972-74 and Delta State 1975-77).
Like the first three-peat, when UConn defeated the Lady Vols in two of those championship games, these Huskies also had to best their toughest rival in back-to-back years. But unlike last year’s 21-point win over Notre Dame in a battle between undefeated teams, this one bore watching to the end.
There was more suspense than usual, but ultimately, the result was familiar.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to do what we did,” said Auriemma, who is 10-for-10 in NCAA title games, tying him with UCLA’s John Wooden for the most in college basketball history. “It was really hard to do it. We knew that playing Notre Dame was going to be really, really difficult. And it was everything that we thought it was going to be.”
The Irish (36-3) held UConn (38-1) to a season-low in points, and an NCAA-tournament low 31 in the first half.
The two teams who shoot the ball better than any in the country were under 40 percent for most the game, committed more turnovers and produced fewer assists than they’re accustomed to.
This was hardly the precision basketball that has made Auriemma and Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw the game’s top offensive practitioners.
But with All-American guard Jewell Loyd shouldering a heavy scoring load (scoring 12 points on 4-for-18 shooting), going defensive worked for the Irish, at least for the first 33 minutes or so.
Turner, a freshman who didn’t play in Notre Dame’s loss to UConn in South Bend in December, finally lent Jewell a helping hand with 14 points, all in the second half.
Then Mosqueda-Lewis happened, among other things. She started her decisive scoring burst with a 3, then a 16-footer, to blow UConn’s lead to 61-50. She and Jefferson led with 15 points, Morgan Tuck had 12 and the Huskies held Notre Dame to 33 percent shooting.
“I think we kind of lost people in transition,” Loyd said. There was a “lack of communication at times when we needed to break away. We kind of relaxed a little bit, and that’s when they ran the shots.”
Jefferson and Breanna Stewart wreaked havoc on both ends too. When Stewart was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Performer (8 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks), she was tearful on the trophy stage, wiping her face with her jersey.
The only woman who’s won MOP three times (UCLA’s Lew Alcindor is the only player on the men’s side to match that) said the honor should have been Jefferson’s.
“I thought the way she played was phenomenal these last two games,” Stewart said later. “And I think that people wanted to give it to me just because it was my opportunity to win three in a row.”
Since winning his first NCAA title in 1995, Auriemma said capturing more titles has become more challenging. It hasn’t always seemed that way — four of UConn’s crowns were claimed in undefeated fashion — but the “magic ride” that began in 1995 at times has felt like a slog, just like Tuesday’s game.
“With each year it’s gotten increasingly difficult to get to the same point, because now you know where the pitfalls are,” Auriemma said.
The historical context is another matter. How UConn has been roaring through the women’s field since 2000 is very comparable to the state of the men’s game during the heyday of the UCLA dynasty from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s.
“John Wooden was one of the reasons why the college game became the game it became,” Auriemma said. “I hope that we at Connecticut have done our part to grow this game. I do think there’s a level of attention that we’re given that I think helps everybody.
“And just like it ended at UCLA, history has a way of reminding you that the same thing is going to happen with us. We just want to enjoy it while we’re in it.”
