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SPORTSThursday 7 April 2016
Four peat Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart, left, and Morgan Tuck celebrate with the trophy and teammates asi and Maya Moore, who
after winning 86-65 over Texas in a college basketball game in the regional final of the women’s watched from the stands
Continued from page 18 NCAA Tournament, Monday, March 28, 2016, in Bridgeport, Conn. at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
‘I’ll say this. She’s the great-
As long as I have those Associated Press est NCAA Tournament
players in my memory, I’m player I’ve ever been
good.” since. The win over Syra- outstanding player of the others to decide her place around,” Auriemma said.
Stewart scored 24 points cuse was the 75th straight Final Four all four years of in women’s college basket- “When the lights were the
and grabbed 10 rebounds for UConn, all by double her career. No other wom- ball lore. There is no deny- brightest, that’s (when) she
in the final game of her bril- figures. Stewart and her en’s player has won it more ing she is the most accom- was at her best.”
liant college career. fellow seniors went 24-0 in than twice. plished player ever, win- The Huskies scored the first
“It’s unbelievable,” Stewart NCAA tourney games, too. The three-time AP Player of ning more titles than fellow nine points of the game.
said of her fourth title. “That Stewart earned the most the Year has said it is up to UConn greats Diana Taur- Stewart had 10 points in
was our goal coming in the first 6 minutes as UConn
here once we were fresh- built a 23-6 lead.
man and to carry it out Stewart, Tuck and Jeffer-
and win like this as seniors is son left the game for good
unbelievable.” with 1:46 left. They shared
Stewart and her fellow se- an embrace together be-
niors Morgan Tuck and Mo- fore hugging Auriemma.
riah Jefferson posed on the The trio then went down
ladder after cutting down the bench hugging every
the net for the final time. member of the team.
“This is exactly what we “There’s three key ingredi-
wanted,” Stewart said. ents that go into this kind of
“Going into every one of success, ‘One, two, three,’”
our national championship Auriemma said afterward,
runs, we were confident pointing to his three seniors.
and that’s what we were Auriemma has never lost in
tonight, confident. We 11 title appearances. While
made history.” the names may change,
The Huskies (38-0) have the results are always the
been nearly unbeatable same: UConn is still there
since Stewart arrived. They holding that trophy in the
lost four games her fresh- end. q
man year and only one
