University of Louisville
Connecticut
No. 5 Huskies Stop No. 20 Cardinals
February 13, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 13, 2007
STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- Renee Montgomery scored 20 points and Connecticut moved a big step closer to its first regular-season Big East championship in three years with an 84-56 victory over No. 20 Louisville on Tuesday night.
Mel Thomas hit five 3-pointers and had 19 points for UConn (23-2, 12-0 Big East). Charde Houston also had 19 points and added eight steals, a career high.
Connecticut jumped on Louisville early, scoring the first 16 points of the game, while the Cardinals (22-4, 8-4) missed their first eight shots. Louisville didn't get on the board until Yuliya Tokova hit a put-back with 15:13 to go before intermission.
The Huskies led 28-8 midway through the half, before Louisville used a 7-0 run to cut the gap to 13. But Connecticut had stretched that to 44-22 at intermission, hitting 7-of-11 from behind the arc. They were 9-of-18 on 3-pointers for the game.
UConn went on an 18-6 run to open the second half. When Houston stole the ball from Kala Faulkner and went in for an easy layup, the Huskies led 62-28.
Louisville's Angel McCoughtry led all scorers with 28 points. She came into the game leading the Big East in scoring, rebounding and steals. She averages almost 22 points, and over 11 rebounds a game, and now has 86 steals, adding six to her total against UConn.
The Huskies held the Cardinals to 30 percent shooting, 22 percent in the first half, and forced 21 Cardinal turnovers.
The win was the ninth in a row for Connecticut (23-2, 12-0 Big East), the last four coming against ranked opponents.
The loss knocks the Cardinals out of a second place tie in the conference.
The Huskies came into the game with a three-game lead in the Big East race over Louisville, Marquette, and Rutgers. They can clinch their 15th Big East regular-season championship with wins over Pittsburgh on Saturday and at South Florida on Feb. 20.
