UConn, USF To Clash for American Title

Katie Lou Samuelson, the AAC's Player of the Year, will lead the Huskies
to their fifth straight American championship game this afternoon at
the Mohegan Sun Arena. Tip-off is at 5 p.m., and the game will be
televised on ESPN2. (Photo by Bill Harper)

By Bob Phillips

UNCASVILLE–The No. 1 seed University of Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball team advanced to their fifth straight American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Championship game with an historic 75-21 thrashing of Cincinnati, the tournament’s No. 4 seed, Cincinnati at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Monday night. The Huskies, the four-time defending AAC champs, have advanced to the NCAA Final Four for 10 straight years, and have won the national championship 11 times.

The Huskies held the Bearcats to scoring the fewest points, field goals and shooting the lowest field goal percentage in American Athletic Conference Championship history. UConn shot 48 percent from the floor, as Azurá Stevens led UConn with a double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds. Napheesa Collier, Katie Lou Samuelson and Crystal Dangerfield joined her in double-digit scoring.

The Huskies shot 44 percent from the field in the opening quarter, while holding the Bearcats to just two field goals. Cincinnati went scoreless for the final 4:39 of the quarter, as the Huskies jumped out to an early 17-5 lead.

UConn leveraged its strong defensive presence into the second quarter and became the first team in conference history to hold an opponent scoreless through an entire frame. The Huskies continued a 34-0 run from the first quarter to enter the locker room with a 43-5 lead. Cincinnati’s five points are the fewest allowed in American Athletic Conference Championship history.

Stevens and Samuelson combined for 25 points at the break, as UConn led 29-9 in rebounds and had 17 points off 11 forced turnovers in the first half.

UConn expanded its scoring run to 38-0 in the third quarter with field goals from Dangerfield and    Collier. Cincinnati’s Shanice Johnson made a 3-pointer at the 8:37 mark to break the 16-minute drought. The Huskies allowed only 12 more points for the rest of the contest, as they shot 43 percent from the floor and led by at least 39 points until the final buzzer. 

Bulls Advance

In Monday’s other semifinal match-up, it was a battle between the league’s Sunshine State schools in the first 2018 American Athletic Conference as No. 2 seed USF will head to its fourth-straight conference championship after a 74-59 win over No. 3 seed.

Four USF starters reached double-figure scoring, as the Bulls defeated UCF for third time this year. Kitija Laska hit four 3-pointers and led the team with 20 points. Laura Ferreira added 17 points for the Bulls. Zakiya Saunders led UCF with 20 points and seven rebounds.

UCF used a 6-0 run to briefly pull ahead, but both teams shot 47 percent from the field to start, as the opening quarter ended in a 16-16 tie. The Knights held a narrow lead for more than half of the first frame, but the Bulls battled back to knot it up at the first intermission.

A 13-4 USF run through the first five minutes of the second quarter gave the Bulls a 29-20 lead and forced a UCF timeout with 4:37 left before the break. However, USF was held to just two more baskets for the remainder of the half, as a jumper by UCF senior Aliyah Gregory with 30 seconds left closed the gap to three points at halftime (33-30). Each team shot 48 percent from the floor in the first half, with UCF’s top scorer Laska and USF top scorer, Saunders collecting 10 points each.

The Bulls hit three consecutive 3-pointers to begin the second half with a 9-0 run to expand out to a 42-30 lead at the 7:30 mark. USF led by as much as 14 points, but UCF got within single digits with a 5-0 run to end the third quarter at 49-40.

Ferreira hit back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the Bulls’ lead to 17 points at the 4:52 mark of the fourth quarter. USF outscored UCF by a 25-19 margin in the fourth quarter to earn its 2018 championship berth at the final buzzer.

UConn and USF will battle for The American title tonight at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Tip-off is at 5 p.m., and the championship game will be broadcast live on ESPN2 and can also be viewed on portable devices on WatchESPN.

—with staff reports