Irish end Huskies’ quest for three straight titles

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s not often Maya Moore meets her match. Skylar Diggins was up to the task, and Notre Dame will play for a national championship because of it.

The sensational sophomore guard scored 28 points and hot-shooting Notre Dame upset UConn 72-63 on Sunday night, ending the brilliant career of Moore and the Huskies’ quest for a third straight national championship.

Ten years after their last title, the Irish will be playing for another one Tuesday night against Texas A&M, which beat Stanford 63-62 in the first semifinal. The improbable championship game features no top seeds for the first time since 1994.

Connecticut and Stanford had each been to the Final Four the last four seasons and were expected to meet for the title on Tuesday night in a rematch of last year’s title game.

While UConn won that meeting, the Cardinal ended UConn’s record 90-game winning streak on Dec. 30. Everyone thought the rematch would come here in Indianapolis on basketball’s biggest stage.

“This is what women’s basketball needs,” Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said. “It needs regional finals, national semifinal and national final games like this to sometimes wake up America.”

Notre Dame was 0-3 against its Big East rival this season, but the Irish had all the answers this time for the Huskies, who lost for just the second time in three seasons. The Irish already had beaten Tennessee in the NCAA tournament, ending a 20-game skid against the Volunteers.

Now the Irish (31-7) have knocked out the two-time defending champions.

Moore finished with 36 points, including 12 straight as she tried to rally the Huskies from a 12-point deficit in the final 6 minutes, but it wasn’t enough for UConn (36-2).

“I don’t know that you could wish for somebody better to spend four years with,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said of Moore. “I don’t think she needs to hang her head one bit.”

The four-time All-American and AP player of the year was overshadowed by Diggins, the South Bend native who felt right at home at Conseco Fieldhouse, where she led her high school to three straight titles.

Calmly directing her offense and fearlessly driving into the lane to create chances for herself and her teammates, Diggins now has a chance to add a NCAA championship to that list.

“We had to be poised, I mean, we had to try to make Maya take tough shots, and I think she did,” Diggins said. “And at the end we said, ‘We have to stay poised on defense and we have to execute on offense.’ We showed a lot more poise than we did in the first three games against Connecticut.”

Trailing 34-26 early in the second half, Diggins’ three-point play started a 15-4 run by the Irish. Devereaux Peters’ added her own three-point play that gave Notre Dame a 38-37 advantage – its first lead since midway through the first half.

Diggins capped the burst with another three-point play that made it 41-38 with 13:17 left and brought the pro-Irish crowd to its feet and left Auriemma’s team reeling.

The Irish extended their lead to 47-40 a few minutes later before UConn cut the deficit to four on Bria Hartley’s 3-pointer.

Brittany Mallory and Natalie Novosel hit consecutive 3-pointers to make it a 12-point game with just over 7 minutes left. Moore did her best to try to rally her young team, but the Huskies fell short.

Moore started her flurry with a three-point play and then a hit a deep 3-pointer. After Novosel hit a layup Moore hit another 3-pointer that made it 63-60 with 2:26 left. That’s as close as the Huskies would get.