Connecticut rallies in fourth to top Notre Dame at Classic

TOP 25/SEC WOMEN

NO. 1 CONNECTICUT 80, NO. 3 NOTRE DAME 71

HARTFORD, Conn. -- It's been rare over the past decade that Geno Auriemma and his UConn Huskies have found themselves down by double digits in the final 10 minutes of a game. Let alone facing that deficit at home.

Yet that's where the top-ranked Huskies were Sunday against No. 3 Notre Dame. They trailed by 11 in the fourth in front of a stunned sellout crowd.

To make matters worse for the Huskies, they were missing two preseason All-Americans. Gabby Williams was out for the second half with a migraine and Katie Lou Samuelson reinjured her foot in the fourth quarter.

They still had Azura Stevens and she helped the Huskies rally. Stevens, who sat out last year after transferring from Duke, scored 10 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter, to help UConn top the Irish 80-71 in the Jimmy V Classic.

"They made all the plays they needed to make to win the game," Auriemma said. "So things that happen, like that fourth quarter, remind our team how good we can be. ... We can be that good so it was good for us to learn that today, it was really good."

The Huskies (7-0) trailed 65-54 early in the fourth quarter before scoring 21 of the next 26 points that energized the 15,558 fans.

Stevens' layup gave the Huskies a 69-68 lead -- their first since the second quarter. Kia Nurse had seven points during the burst, including hitting her 13th consecutive 3-pointer over the past three games.

Her layup with 3:51 left gave UConn a 71-70 advantage after Arike Ogunbowale had briefly given the Irish (7-1) a 70-69 lead. Nurse then had another layup off a tip from Stevens and the Irish couldn't recover.

"We found that we have a certain level of energy, like that was shown in the fourth quarter and so it's now going to be a challenge to try and bring that out every day in practice so that it starts from the beginning of the game," Stevens said.

In Top 25/SEC women's games Sunday, Ariel Atkins had 17 points and 9 rebounds, Jatarie White added 13 points and No. 2 Texas cruised to an 81-53 victory over Georgia. Brooke McCarty and Lashann Higgs each scored 12 points as the Longhorns (7-0) dominated on both ends of the floor. Mackenzie Engram finished with 17 points and was the only player to score in double figures for Georgia (7-1), which made it to the free-throw line just eight times and shot 17.6 percent on 17 3-point attempts. ... Alexis Jennings had 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead No. 5 South Carolina to a 72-52 victory over No. 14 Duke. A'ja Wilson scored 18 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for the Gamecocks (8-1) to start a new double-double streak. The Blue Devils (6-2) kept it close in the first quarter and trailed 21-16 after a 3-point play by Lexie Brown. But after Jennings followed a Wilson miss with a score, Duke never got closer than seven the rest of the way. ... Victoria Vivians scored a season-high 30 points and had 8 rebounds to help No. 6 Mississippi State beat Oklahoma State 79-76 in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. Roshunda Johnson had 18 points and Morgan William added 15 points for the Bulldogs (8-0). Oklahoma State (6-2) guard Loryn Goodwin had 35 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals; she played all 40 minutes. ... Maci Morris had 16 points, Tatyanna Wyatt had 12 and No. 20 Kentucky cruised to an 82-54 victory over Tennessee Tech. Eleven players scored for the Wildcats (7-1), who took control early. Yaktavia Hickson had 16 points and Mackenzie Coleman had 15 for the Golden Eagles (1-6), who have lost six consecutive.

Sports on 12/04/2017

Upcoming Events