Baylor upsets UConn, snaps Huskies’ 98-game home winning streak
Baylor’s NaLyssa Smith flies in for the easy layup and Geno Auriemma is forced to call a timeout for UConn and he doesn’t look happy. (0:22)
HARTFORD, Conn. — For the second year in a row, Baylor ended a UConn women’s basketball streak. And with their 74-58 victory Thursday night at the XL Center, the Lady Bears guaranteed we’ll have another No. 1 team this season.
You just don’t see UConn get its lunch money taken away like this very often, and in this case, it happened thanks to a strong defensive effort in the second half by No. 6 Baylor. The Huskies scored just six points in the fourth quarter and were 2-of-18 from the field in those ice-cold 10 minutes.
This was UConn’s worst loss since March 26, 2007, against LSU (by 23 in the NCAA tournament), and its worst home loss since Dec. 5, 2005, versus North Carolina (also by 23).
The Huskies are known for their streaks; this one was for home victories, which stood at 98 and includes this building in downtown Hartford and Gampel Pavilion on campus in Storrs. The Huskies were one home win away from tying the record held by UConn teams from 2007 to 2012.
But Baylor, the defending national champion, was able to hand the Huskies their first loss this season and their first at either of their home arenas since March 12, 2013. That night, during Breanna Stewart’s freshman season, they lost here at the XL Center to Notre Dame in the Big East tournament final. That was an emotional defeat for UConn, but the Huskies followed it by winning the NCAA tournament the next four years in a row.
But UConn has been defeated in the national semifinals the past three years, and this is the first season in quite a while that they don’t have anyone on the team who has won an NCAA title.
Baylor, meanwhile, has a whole team of players with championship experience, including three starters who returned from last year’s squad. And in the second half, Baylor simply wore down UConn.
Last year, at Baylor’s Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas, the Lady Bears beat then-No. 1 UConn 68-57, ending the Huskies’ regular-season wins streak at 126.
Thursday’s game was close at halftime, with Baylor holding a 35-34 lead. But the tables turned in the second half, and UConn finished the game shooting just 29% from the field to Baylor’s 45%.
Guard Te’a Cooper — one of the players who wasn’t on the national championship team last year, because she was at South Carolina before transferring as a graduate student — led Baylor with 27 points. NaLyssa Smith had 20, and Lauren Cox, who has missed much of this season with a stress reaction, had 16 points, six rebounds and four assists.