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A look back at Tuesday’s UConn-Notre Dame game:
No. 1 UConn 73, No. 10 Notre Dame 64

Connecticut's Stefanie Dolson, center, scores while being guarded by Notre Dame's Natalie Achonwa, left, and Natalie Novosel during the second half Connecticut's 73-64 victory in an NCAA college basketball game for the Big East tournament championship in Hartford, Conn., on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Fred Beckham)

TURNING POINT – The Huskies were hardly at their best in the first half. They committed 10 turnovers, were called for 10 fouls and were outrebounded 18-16. Yet, they still held a 32-31 lead at halftime.

But as it has done so often UConn regrouped in the locker room and came out looking like a different team in the second half. With the game tied at 38, Maya Moore made a 3-pointer with 17:01 left to give the Huskies the lead for good. The hoop ignited a 14-2 run.

“We wanted it,’’ Notre Dame freshman Natalie Achonwa said. “There was a little stretch where they went on a run and that killed us.’’

The Huskies finished the run by scoring 11 straight points. Moore capped the surge with another 3-pointer to give UConn a 52-40 lead with 12:44 left. Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley each added four points, while Notre Dame went scoreless for 5:17. The Irish missed 10 straight shots and committed three turnovers.

“On defense we definitely locked down and communicated more so we could get over screens,’’ Hartley said. “Then, offensively, I just think we were more aggressive. We came out, made sure we were attacking the basket and we’d draw people to the middle and just kick it out. People can hit shots and then Stef was just great there in the post. She established position and we were able to hit her in the post and she was finishing well.’’

UNSUNG HERO – I know Dolson was named to the all-tournament team. I know she set a UConn freshman record by scoring 60 points in the tournament. But, in my opinion, she can’t get enough praise for the transformation she has made this season.

Dolson tied her career-high with 24 points and had nine rebounds, two blocks and overcame exhaustion in playing all 40 minutes for the first time this season against the Irish. She also scored eight of UConn’s final 13 points, including making two free throws with 52.4 seconds left that increased the lead to 70-60.

As she stood at the free throw line a chant of “MVP, MVP, MVP’’ could be heard.

“Before I came here? Probably not. I didn’t think I could focus on anything,’’ Dolson said. “So coming in here, playing like I did, it feels good to know that all my hard work paid off, and that my mentality has gotten to this point so that I can just add to it for the tournament coming up and next year and the years coming after. I think the mental part is the hardest part. Physical … We workout every day. We practice every day. So you know that’s going to come. But I think the mental part is definitely the harder part and the part that I’ve battled with all year. I’ve definitely gotten to a great point right now, but there’s definitely still room to improve.’’

BEST ‘X’ AND/OR ‘O’ – The Huskies worked the ball inside more often in the second half, scoring 20 of their 41 points in the paint. Dolson had a team-high 14 points (6-of-9 FG) in the second half.

“I think it’s hard to win championships if you don’t have somewhat of a consistent scoring threat inside,’’ Auriemma said. “Whoever that is. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a center or any particular position. I think what Stefanie has done has given us a little bit of a comfort level we didn’t have probably September, October, November, December. We were more a team that had to make jump shots and had to get out in transition. Our halfcourt offense, we weren’t as comfortable in it. Now that we have someone like her that we really can count on night in and night out, we have a chance. If she hadn’t developed to the point she’s at now, I don’t think we would have any chance going into the NCAAs.’’

Connecticut players celebrate with a trophy after defeating Notre Dame 73-64 in an NCAA college basketball game for the Big East tournament championship in Hartford, Conn., on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Fred Beckham)

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS – With the sound of the final buzzer, the Huskies could finally celebrate a gutsy win against a talented and physical opponent in the championship game. Moore, the tournament Most Outstanding Player, embraced Dolson. She told Dolson that she was her MVP. “To know that the Player of the Year, the player she is, the person she is, that someone like that would tell me I was the MVP it feels amazing,’’ Dolson said. … With respect to Moore, had the all-tournament team ballots been collected at the end of the game Dolson would have been named the MOP. Tournament officials collected the ballots during the final media timeout with 3:47 left in the game. Dolson had 18 points. Moore had 22. Dolson then came out and scored six points to help the Huskies seal the win. Several members of the media admitted afterward that they would have changed their vote in favor of Dolson. “I wanted to bring everybody up there with me,’’ Moore said of when she received the MOP trophy. “I thought that everyone played really well. I wanted to tell Stefanie to go get it. I feel a sense of satisfaction that my teammates have my back and they’re going to step up and be there and do their part. It’s something we talked about before the season, even before we started playing. It’s coming to fruition.’’ … Dolson delivered one of the biggest plays of the game when she made a layup with 2:29 left. With the Huskies leading 64-59, Dolson worked her way through a mass of bodies in the lane to put back a missed jumper by Moore. Dolson was falling to the floor as she shot the ball. “It’s just one of the big plays that I was talking about,’’ Moore said. “She was there. She had my back in that instance. It’s all those little plays that you look back on and that makes the difference. Hustle plays, getting a loose ball, getting an offensive rebound. And that’s what I think sometimes gets overlooked is the little plays. When it comes to championships, that’s what makes the biggest difference. And that’s the mentality that we’ve seen in Stefanie and that’s exactly what everybody’s mentality has to be. Just not being tired, going after every loose ball and staying with the play. So that was a big momentum mover for us.’’ … The Huskies have three days off before returning to practice Saturday. Here’s what Moore plans to do: “Get some sleep, no alarm. Eat some pancakes,’’ she said. Auriemma is in Georgia today and will be in California Thursday tending to some recruiting business. …UConn improved to 9-0 all-time against Notre Dame in the Big East tournament. Five wins have come in the final. … Moore and Lorin Dixon became the first class in team history to complete their career with only one Big East loss (75-1). The 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2010 classes had two losses. “It definitely feels good to go out on top,’’ Moore said. “Playing our last XL game here, winning and having to grind out a win against a really good Notre Dame team and to really dominate the Big East like we did this year by getting an undefeated regular season and then winning every game in the Big East tournament it’s kind of tough to think about but I’m just proud of my team.’’ … Moore became the second player in Big East history to be honored as Player of the Year and Most Outstanding Player of the conference tournament in the same season. She also did it in 2009. Former Villanova All-American Shelly Pennefather was so honored in 1986 and 1987.

LOOKING AHEAD – The Huskies (32-1) will begin their quest for a record-tying third straight national championship March 20 at Gampel Pavilion. They will learn their exact path to Indianapolis, which is expected to go through Philadelphia, during the Selection Show Monday night on ESPN (7).

BY THE NUMBERS
29.0 – Combined points per game for Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley during the tournament
36 – Total Big East championships for UConn (19 regular season, 17 tournament)
184 – Career points for Maya Moore in the Big East tournament (15.3)

Rich

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Connecticut's Maya Moore, center, battles for a rebound against Georgetown's Tia Magee, left, Sugar Rodgers (14), and Monica McNutt (20) during the second half of a quarterfinal NCAA college basketball game at the Big East Conference Championships in Hartford, Conn., Sunday, March 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

All-American Maya Moore is not injured. She is not sick. She is just human like the rest of us. And sometimes that’s a fact that’s easy to overlook.

Moore simply was not at her best offensively today in the Huskies’ 59-43 win over No. 17 Georgetown in the Big East tournament quarterfinals. She finished with a season-low six points on 2-of-12 shooting (0-of-2 3-pointers).

It was just the fifth time in 147 career games that Moore has failed to reach double figures in scoring. Her career-low is four points at Marquette Jan. 13, 2010.

“They scramble the game up,’’ UConn coach Geno Auriemma said of Georgetown defensively. “They make the game disjointed a little bit. They’re able to kind of make you have to do things … wherever you’re used to going you can’t go there. So you’ve got to kind of think it through a little bit. When you’re not making shots like today … She made a bunch down there at their place (20 points Feb. 26). And she struggled right from the beginning of the game today. And sometimes when you’re doing that you kind of become your own worst enemy. It’s not like what the other team’s doing to you. It’s what you’re not doing or what you’re trying to do. And that happens. It’s happened to a lot of players that have played here. Good ones, bad ones and mediocre ones.’’

Moore made a jumper with 15:07 left in the first half. She did not score for the next 27:28 before making two free throws with 7:49 left in the game.

When Moore made a leaner off the glass with 5:16 left she snapped a run of nine straight missed shots. It was one of those days for the nation’s best player.

Still, Moore did not quit as she finished with 15 rebounds and two assists in 34 minutes.

“I think it was just one of those games,’’ sophomore Kelly Faris said. “It’s Maya and she plays amazing every night. So the second that she misses a couple shots everybody’s like, `Oh, my gosh, what happened?’ I still think she had a fine game and she figured out other things to do.’’

Stefanie Dolson scored a career-high 24 points, the most by a UConn freshman in their first postseason game.

“Every game is definitely a good step, but a game like this just teaches how to be 10 times more aggressive than I was before,’’ Dolson said. “And in a game like this where they came out pressuring you the whole 40 minutes I think I played as tough as I could. And just from a game like this going into the tournament it’s great. It’s a great experience because I’ll know how to be as tough and aggressive (in the future).’’

It was an impressive offensive game by Dolson, for sure. But in typical UConn fashion neither Auriemma nor Dolson were doing cartwheels following the performance.

“I don’t think Stefanie played all that great today,’’ Auriemma said. “She doesn’t think she played all that great. There were a lot of things that I think we could’ve done to help her a little bit more. For her first time out, though, in the tournament … We’ve seen that for the last month or month and a half. If we go to her and we go to her often, she’s going to convert. She finishes around the basket. She draws fouls. If we just could’ve made a couple more shots around her it would’ve been even better. She has to have a great postseason for us to go very far, as does Bria (Hartley). Tiffany (Hayes) has to play like she did in the first half. So a lot has to go right. And, tonight, for 20 minutes a lot went right. And for 20 minutes nothing went right.’’

Rutgers junior Chelsey Lee changed her uniform number from 34 to 52 this season to honor injured Rutgers football player Eric LaGrand.

Rich

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Georgetown didn’t need to be reminded that it hadn’t won a game in the Big East tournament since 2001. The Hoyas had been 0-7 since an 82-75 win over Syracuse in overtime in the first round in 2001. They did not even qualify for the tournament in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

But unlike last season when Georgetown arrived in Hartford, it didn’t talk about ending the drought this weekend. Instead, it focused on playing the game. It worked Saturday as the 17th-ranked Hoyas broke through, rallying from an 11-point deficit in the second half to earn a 61-60 win over Syracuse at the XL Center.

The Hoyas advance to meet No. 1 UConn in the quarterfinals Sunday at 2 p.m.

“I’m very proud of our team,’’ Georgetown coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “We’re not thinking about Connecticut right now. This is our first Big East win. We hadn’t won here in forever. Just live in the moment. We didn’t even talk about Connecticut back there (in the locker room). We need to cherish this moment because it hasn’t happened and they should be very proud of that.’’

Sugar Rodgers scored 11 of her game-high 18 points in the second half to lift the Hoyas. They trailed 42-31 with 14:58 left in the second half.

“My coach just told me to get open because really nobody can stop me,’’ Rodgers said. “Not to brag or anything, but all she said was get open and keep running. That’s what I did.’’

UConn defeated the Hoyas 52-42 in Washington, D.C. Feb. 26. The Huskies committed a season-high 26 turnovers. They also had season-lows in scoring, made field goals (14) and field goals attempted (37).

“Geno’s a great coach and he’s going to make the adjustments to our press,’’ Williams-Flournoy said. “And that’s something we just have to be ready for. They’re not going to turn the ball over as many times as they did, and they’re not going to miss as many shots. I just hope and pray that we hit more shots than what we did last time.”

UConn has won 22 straight Big East tournament quarterfinal games. The Huskies have won 24 straight and 37 of 39 overall against Georgetown.

“I’m definitely very excited because as a freshman you’ve never been through the postseason so you’re eager to find out what’s going to happen,’’ UConn point guard Bria Hartley said. “You just want to play well. Something inside you just understands that it’s the postseason and that you have to have a different mentality now because if you lose one game you could be done for the rest of the season. You have to come out more focused. If you have that mentality, all the pains and aches that you complain about through the season they just go away because your eye is on the task in front of you.’’

Rich

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Connecticut's Maya Moore, right, smiles and looks at head coach Geno Auriemma during the Big East Award ceremony at the Big East Conference Championships in Hartford, Conn., Friday, March 4, 2011. Moore was named Big East player of the year and scholar-athlete of the year. Auriemma received coach of the year honors. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma had hoped that he would have been able to bring freshman Bria Hartley off the bench and ease her into her first season. But the loss of starting point guard Caroline Doty to a season-ending knee injury last summer altered his plans.

There was going to be nothing easy about Hartley’s transition to the elite level of Division I basketball. She was thrown into the starting lineup, asked to direct an offense that lost a combined 36.4 points with the graduation of Tina Charles and Kalana Greene and the loss of Doty.

Hartley welcomed the challenge, starting 26 of 30 games during the regular season for the top-ranked Huskies. And Friday she was rewarded for her efforts when she was named the Big East Freshman of the Year.

“This is definitely something you look forward to,’’ Hartley said. “I think you just want to be the best player you can be, and I think especially as a freshman you probably want to be one of the better freshmen. Coach always says when you first come in, there’s a lot of things you’re not used to. It’s a lot of things you have to adjust to. I still have a lot to learn but definitely I adjusted pretty well and got a lot better.’’

Senior All-American Maya Moore was the unanimous selection as the Big East Player of the Year. She was also named the conference Scholar Athlete of the Year for the second straight season. Auriemma was named the Coach of the Year as UConn swept the major awards for the fourth time.

Hartley, who was named Freshman of the Week a conference-best six times this season, is the fourth UConn freshman to win the award in the last six seasons and the 11th overall. Moore was the last member of the Huskies to receive the award in 2008.

Hartley is averaging 12.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 31.4 minutes. She leads the Huskies in 3-point shooting percentage (.420) and made 3-pointers (60). She also scored at least 20 points in three games, including a season-high 29 in a 78-57 win over then-No. 8 Notre Dame at Gampel Pavilion Feb. 19.

“She’s taken a lot of grief from me day in, day out, day in, day out, day in, day out,’’ Auriemma said. “And what she gets from me isn’t even close to what she gets from (assistant coach) Shea (Ralph). So she’s not had it easy this year in a very difficult position to play. And yet the things that we saw in her as a high school kid where she loved the pressure, she loved the big moment. She loved having the ball at crunch time. And I think for her to come into this environment where everything’s magnified and to be able to do that it says a lot about her character and what kind of person she is. It’s remarkable.’’

Moore became the third player in Big East history to be named Player of the Year three times, joining former Villanova All-American Shelly Pennefather (1985, ’86, ‘87) and former UConn All-American Kerry Bascom (1989, ’90, ‘91). Tina Charles won the award last season.

A total of 11 UConn players over 17 seasons dating back to 1989 have been named Big East Player of the Year.

Moore, who is averaging 23.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.4 steals in 32.5 minutes, joins former UConn All-American Rebecca Lobo (1994, ’95) as the only Big East players to be twice named the Scholar Athlete of the Year.

“I have a different perspective now,’’ Moore said. “As a freshman, I don’t really go in expecting anything and it was just kind of, `Oh wow, this is amazing.’ `Oh, wow, really?’ It’s just all brand new. But now looking back as a senior I think I really do realize how much of a privilege it’s been for me to play at a school where I can improve and have a stage and get great players around me who have helped me become better.’’

Auriemma was the named the Big East’s top coach for the fourth straight season (10th overall). He shared the award the previous three seasons. He guided the Huskies, who are presently down to a six-man rotation, to a 29-1 record and their fifth straight conference regular season championship.

UConn finished unbeaten in conference play for the third straight season and the ninth time overall.

“Every year that you get one of these you tend to appreciate it a little bit more,’’ Auriemma said. “And I don’t think it ever gets old, it never gets tiring and never do we take it for granted.’’

Rich