By Mel Greenberg
HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma’s worst nightmare made his Huskies’ Big East dreams come true Tuesday night at the XL Center.
Senior Charde Houston, with whom Auriemma has had his share of disappointments over her collegiate career, gave an MVP performance to help top-ranked and top-seeded Connecticut hold off a challenge from Louisville for a 65-59 victory and another Big East title.
A year ago, the Huskies (32-1) stood here stunned after Rutgers glided by with a closing rally to deny Connecticut its seemingly annual trip to the Big East hardware store.
And for a time, a different breed of red was poised to cause heartache to local populace here again when Louisville (24-9), the seventh seed in the 12-team field, rallied from a 34-19 halftime deficit to get within a point at 48-47 with 5 minutes, 20 seconds left in the game.
But Connecticut put a stop to any further incursion and was able to once again pull its traditional double of Big East regular season and tournament trophies.
Houston was a big part of all this, scoring 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds along with two blocks and two steals.
When her name was announced afterwards as the most outstanding player, Houston was mobbed by her teammates as if they all had just won a sixth NCAA title, which is where Connecticut will be focused next.
“As far as my performance, it is what’s expected of me,” Houston said. “I just want to make sure that I build off of every single game leading to the (NCAA) tournament.
“I am overjoyed, but if it weren’t for my teammates I wouldn’t have been able to get this far. After everything I’ve been through this season, everybody on the team just made sure that I was in good spirits no matter what.”
Renee Montgomery, who had a team-high 20 points built on 11-for-11 from the foul line after shooting 4-for-19 from the field, was elated for Houston’s success.
“She had to go through so much in the media and in practice,” Montgomery said. “It’s the day-to-day basis that she has been through so much. To see her fight through all the things she’s been through and come out MVP of the tournament was just really good to see. I feel that she has a strong will and it shows.”
Auriemma’s testy relationship with Houston goes back several years to when he called her out in the media after she missed a shot that cost Connecticut a chance to beat Duke in the regional title game in Bridgeport, Conn., in 2006.
Her potential contributions this season became eagerly anticipated after Kalana Greene and Mel Thomas suffered season-ending knee injuries.
Houston was a key player in Connecticut’s second half comeback against North Carolina, but several games later Auriemma was critical again following the loss to Rutgers and noted “I can’t play her.”
They later met to air their differences and the Huskies proceeded on their march toward a Big East title.
“She really took on a leadership role for the first time,” Auriemma said of her performance. “That’s one thing Charde’s not been able to do in the four years she’s been here is be any kind of a leader because she’s had too many of her own struggles
“But today she actually showed some of those qualities that are going to help her down the road,” Auriemma continued. “It’s been a long time coming, but in two weeks we’re going to see whether there’s a carryover. I hope there is. But I’ve always hoped there is. Now I’m really hoping there is. Now I’m praying there is.”
Connecticut’s Maya Moore, the Big East freshman and player of the year, added 13 points, but did not make the all-tournament team that included the Huskies’ Tina Charles and Montgomery, along with Louisville’s Angel McCoughtry and Candyce Bingham, and Pittsburgh’s Marcedes Walker, a University City graduate from Philadelphia.
McCoughtry had a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds, while the Cardinals’ Brandie Radde added 12 points off of four treys, and Bingham added 11 points and 14 rebounds.
The win, of course, gave Connecticut the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Huskies’ season body of work that was dented only by a 73-71 loss at Rutgers is expected to produce the overall No. 1 seed in the 64-team NCAA field.
Auriemma was quickly lobbying for a fair bracket afterwards in light of concessions to geographical placement of top teams in the past according to the NCAA’s principles and procedures.
“If we’re the overall No. 1 team, we should get the No. 8 seed, otherwise it’s not a real tournament,” Auriemma said. “But I don’t care where they send us.”
The four region sites are Greensboro, N.C.; New Orleans, Oklahoma City, and Spokane, Wash. Two early-round sites are nearby Bridgeport and College Park, Md.
Tennessee, the Southeastern Conference champion, and North Carolina, champion of the Atlantic Coast, are also expected to get No. 1 seeds, with the last top spot going to either Pac-10 champion Stanford, or Rutgers, Maryland, or LSU.
The Big East tournament was also a dress rehearsal for the NCAA event with seven teams likely to get at-large bids, while DePaul, a potential eighth representative, is on the bubble.
At the moment, Louisville coach Jeff Walz, a former Maryland assistant who took over the Cardinals this season, was too emotionally spent to think ahead to the NCAA field.
He cited the homecourt advantage Connecticut gets in this event, though Auriemma later noted that his team has lost the Big East tournament in this arena as well as at the Huskies’ campus venue at Gampel.
“If you’re good enough to win it, well … “ Auriemma said, his voice trailing off.
Louisville was good enough to cause fits after dispatching Rutgers in the quarterfinals.
“It was 15 points at the half and I bet all of you had us written off and this game was off and there was no way for us to come back,” Walz said. “I told them in the locker room that if they wanted to pack it in, we can get on the bus and have everyone wondering where we were in the second half.
“They wanted to come out, we gave them a game plan and they followed it; it was a one point game and we had the ball with about four and a half left. They just fought and fought. Everyone wants to say that we’re a one-person team but they unfortunately do not know much about the game.
“Angel McCoughtry shot the ball 10 times in the second half and goes six for 10, but everybody on this team hit big shots for us tonight.”
Asked what Louisville might take from his team’s effort into the NCAA tournament, Walz responded quickly and tersely, “It sucks to lose.”
-- Mel
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