UConn Women Fall to Notre Dame 72-63

Connecticut is no longer looking for a three-peat as they were defeated by Notre Dame in their fourth meeting of the year. Notre Dame will be heading to National Championship game against Texas A&M after their upset victory over Stanford.

UConn's Maya Moore played spectacularly, scoring 36 and grabbing 8 rebounds. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the Huskies wouldn't provide much support. Freshman, Bria Hartley was the only other UConn player to score in double digits with 10 points. In addition to no support from the rest of the team, the Huskies didn't get many fouls called their way in the second half which severely limited them. Had Notre Dame not been given so many easy points in the second half, I believe UConn would have either won or made the game even closer. I admit that Connecticut was not playing their best basketball. Notre Dame did a great job shutting down everyone but Maya Moore. They did exactly what they had to do to win. Moore is going to score her points and you're not going to outplay her, so the best way for a team to win is shut down the rest of the team. Unlike in previous years, UConn didn't have a second star player to help carry the team. It was somewhat of a rebuilding year with such a young cast of players and veteran, Caroline Doty out all season.

This game marks Connecticut's second loss on the season to a team that has played them tough all season. It's very tough for a team to beat another four times in the same season, especially a very good Notre Dame team. The familiarity between the two teams is very tough to overcome, especially when everyone knows Maya Moore is going to be leading her team. Now Connecticut has to move on from Maya Moore as she will graduate this year and is expected to be selected no. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft.

As a bitter UConn fan, I must say go Texas A&M. Please beat Notre Dame and win your first national title, but I'm also torn to say go Notre Dame to keep the national title in the Big East family. The title game is April 5th at 8:30pm on ESPN. It should be a good game regardless.