ATLANTA -- Freshman Ann Strother and the other Connecticut
starters gave Diana Taurasi plenty of help.
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| Ann Strother shook off first-half foul trouble to finish with 17 points, with eight coming in a crucial stretch late in the second half. |
Saddled with foul trouble for most of the first 20 minutes,
Strother scored eight of her 17 points in a five-minute stretch of
the second half as the Huskies beat Tennessee 73-68 Tuesday night
for their third championship in the last four years.
"I guess I came out a little too aggressive,'' said Strother,
who picked up two fouls in the game's first eight minutes. "But I
guess that's better than being too tentative.''
Taurasi led the way, as usual, scoring 28 points in a virtuoso
performance. But when she took her only breather midway through the
second half, Strother helped UConn keep a nine-point lead by making
two 3-pointers and another jumper.
And when the Lady Vols got within three points in the final
seconds, Strother calmly made two free throws to push the Huskies'
lead to five.
"I really wasn't thinking anything, except they were going
in,'' she said. "That's all that was in my mind.''
Reserve Ashley Battle then stole the inbound pass by Tennessee,
and Connecticut ran out the clock.
Earlier, when the Lady Vols had cut a 13-point deficit to five
on a free throw by Gwen Jackson with 2:39 left, Huskies point guard
Maria Conlon came up with a big steal, stripping the ball from
Tennessee's Kara Lawson.
On the other end, Strother made a layup to get the margin back
to seven.
Conlon, who averaged 6.8 points during the regular season,
scored 11. She also had six assists and four rebounds.
"They were doing everything they could to stop Diana, and then
when Ann hit some shots, they focused on her, too,'' Conlon said.
"That left me some open shots, and I probably should have made
more than I did.''
But it was her defense on Lawson in the first half that allowed
the Huskies to take charge. She diligently kept Lawson away from
the ball, forcing Tennessee to run its offense through other
players.
The strategy helped force the Lady Vols into nine turnovers
before the break, and UConn led 35-30. Lawson's only basket in
three first-half attempts was a 3-pointer.
"She's one of their seniors, and they want the ball to be in
her hands,'' Conlon said. "If we could keep the ball away from
her, we thought that might hurt them.''
Strother played only 12 minutes in the first half because of the
two fouls, but she stayed out of trouble the rest of the way,
playing the entire second half. At 6-foot-2, she's tall enough to
battle inside but also possesses the dribbling skills of a guard.
She constantly got herself open, while Tennessee made sure Taurasi
got few good shots.
"Ann has what's called good basketball karma,'' Huskies coach
Geno Auriemma said. "She is always open. There is never a time
when Ann Strother is not open. It's just one of those things in
life that you can't explain.''
During the regular season, Strother shot 37 percent on
3-pointers, the best on the team, and her total of 54 trailed only
Taurasi. Strother finished 3-of-7 from behind the arc against the
Lady Vols, and she made her first one barely 90 seconds into the
game.
"They keyed in on Diana, so I just found a spot to be open,''
Strother said. "But I probably should have knocked down a few more
than I did.''
Forward Barbara Turner added 10 points for UConn, and center
Jessica Moore held Tennessee center Gwen Jackson to six points in
the second half on 2-of-6 shooting.
"I really wasn't getting that many open looks, so I thought I'd
just try to help my team by playing tough defense,'' Moore said.
"Guarding Gwen was tough, but I think I did a pretty good job in
the second half.''
