National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

back to 2010 | Back to NCAA News Archive Index

Mar 9, 2010 8:52:29 AM

Connecticut's women's basketball team broke its own NCAA record for the longest women's basketball winning streak with a 59-44 victory over Notre Dame in the Big East Conference tournament semifinals Monday.

The victory continues the Huskies' dominance that started last season. The team's average margin of victory throughout the streak is just more than 32 points, and no team has come within single digits. Their closest victory this season came December 23 when Connecticut beat Stanford by 12 points at home. They won several games in 2008-09 by 10 points.

Connecticut's last loss was at the hands of Stanford on April 4, 2008 in the semifinals of the NCAA Women's Final Four.

Connecticut's winning streak broke the Huskies' own record from November 9, 2001, to March 11, 2003. That team lost to Villanova in the conference semifinals.

Even though the current team broke that team's record, coach Geno Auriemma believes his 2002 Huskies, led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, were a better team.

"I think that group would beat this group," he said. "But that's not important, because they'll never have to play each other."

The team's celebration was tempered by an injury to Caroline Doty, who took an elbow to the head that left her on the floor for several minutes. Connecticut has not said whether Doty will play in tonight's Big East championship game against West Virginia.

Top 10 all-time/all-divisions NCAA record winning streaks