We are 7-11 (2-4 in the postseason) all time against UConn, but we've lost 8 of the last 10 times we played them. Three of our victories came in the early '90s before they won their first national title.
After playing UConn 12 times from 2005 to 2014, including five times in the postseason, we've only played Auriemma's squad once since then (a 53-78 setback in Nov. 2017).
81alum pointed out that Jerome and Wilson are the only players still remaining from that contest and so much time has passed since then that there wouldn't normally be any players left from that game if they hadn't come back for extra years. Jerome started that game, played 22 minutes and ended up with 2 points on 1/5 shooting, while Wilson played a measly 3 minutes and took one shot and turned the ball over once.
We are on a three game postseason losing streak to the Huskies after winning the previous two:
Our regular season matchups have also been tough, but also include two tremendous streak-busting wins for us:
Anyway, this is what insomnia gets you while we wait for Friday's game, a walk down memory lane.
After playing UConn 12 times from 2005 to 2014, including five times in the postseason, we've only played Auriemma's squad once since then (a 53-78 setback in Nov. 2017).
81alum pointed out that Jerome and Wilson are the only players still remaining from that contest and so much time has passed since then that there wouldn't normally be any players left from that game if they hadn't come back for extra years. Jerome started that game, played 22 minutes and ended up with 2 points on 1/5 shooting, while Wilson played a measly 3 minutes and took one shot and turned the ball over once.
We are on a three game postseason losing streak to the Huskies after winning the previous two:
- 2014 National Semifinals (56-75): This will be our first postseason matchup against UConn since the 2014 national semifinals when the Huskies ended Chiney's collegiate career with a 75-56 win. We kept the game close in the first half thanks to some hot shooting by then-freshman Lili Thompson, but in the end, after holding them to 28 first half points, we couldn't contain Breanna Stewart and co. forever and gave up 47 second half points. Chiney was limited to 15 points on 5/12 shooting; Orrange was our leading scorer with 16 points on an inefficient 5/14 shooting night.
- 2010 National Championship (47-53): Despite holding a Maya Moore-led team to an unheard of 12 points in the first half, we could only muster 20 points on our end and that 8-point lead wasn't large enough to survive the second half. The Huskies offense woke up after halftime with 41 points in the last 20 minutes, while ours only got marginally better as the game wore on. Jayne Appel was struggling with an injury and finished her illustrious career with a very forgettable line (0 points on 0/12 shooting). I always wondered what could have happened if we had a healthy Appel to pair with Nneka and Kayla Pedersen inside. While the trio was a combined 10/39 from the field that day, they did have 37 rebounds between the three of them.
- 2009 National Semifinals (64-83): UConn thrashed us to avenge their loss from a year earlier. The Huskies was an unstoppable force during this period and unfortunately we couldn't stop them (no one could that season). Appel and Nneka, in her freshman season, together had 39 points and 19 rebounds for our frontcourt, but the rest of the team was a combined 10/43 and that was nowhere near enough to keep up with the Huskies' duo of Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery who put up 50 against us.
- 2008 National Semifinals (82-73): We made it all the way to our first national title game since our 1992 championship run that year in Candice Wiggins' senior season. Along the way, we avenged an early season loss to the Huskies by beating them in the national semis. We had a varied attack that game with Wiggins and JJ Hones hitting 6/12 from downtown while Pedersen and Appel scored from inside (32 combined points).
- 2005 Sweet Sixteen (76-59): In our only non-Final Four postseason encounter, we caught UConn in a rare period where they lacked superstars (after the era of Bird & Taurasi but before Tina Charles, Montgomery and Moore arrived) and took full advantage, easily winning this game during Wiggins' freshman year.
Our regular season matchups have also been tough, but also include two tremendous streak-busting wins for us:
- November 17, 2014 (88-86 OT): No one really gave us much of a shot coming into this game as we had been handedly beaten by UConn just seven months earlier in the national semis and we lost Chiney to graduation afterwards while the Huskies brought back Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson. But our team didn't listened and Amber Orrange certainly didn't. At Maples, Orrange hit a buzzer beating three pointer (her only made long range shot of the game) at the end of regulation to force overtime and we held on to end UConn's 47-game winning streak. Thompson was our leading scorer with 24 points while Bonnie Samuelson came off the bench to chip in 14 points and Kaylee Johnson in her second collegiate game pulled down 13 rebounds against the likes of Breanna Stewart and Kiah Stokes.
- December 30, 2010 (71-59): We did what 90 teams before us (including us three times in there) couldn't do: beat UConn. In a packed Maples, we not only beat the Huskies, but by double digits. In that moment, we owned the last two wins over Auriemma as they hadn't lost since we beat them in the '08 national semis. We held Moore in check (14 points on 5/15 shooting) while Pohlen led us to victory with 31 points including a perfect 10/10 from the FT line.
Anyway, this is what insomnia gets you while we wait for Friday's game, a walk down memory lane.