By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
An exhilarating postseason run came to a painful end on Saturday afternoon when the UTSA Roadrunners walked off the floor at Gampel Pavilion, finally beaten, at the hands of the defending national champion Connecticut Huskies.
From March 7-14, the Roadrunners stunned their rivals in the American Conference by winning five games in a row.
They punctuated the streak by claiming four wins in four days in Alabama to win the conference’s postseason title, allowing them to qualify for their first NCAA women’s basketball tournament in 17 years.
Paired with the top overall seed in the tournament, though, the Roadrunners failed to generate much of anything offensively in the face of a relentless defensive effort and fell 90-52 in the first round to the Huskies.
As UTSA (18-16) lost its first game since March 4, undefeated Connecticut (35-0) has now won 51 straight.
“They’re really, really good and our team, I do believe our team understood that,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said. “They had the correct mindset, the correct preparation, but we ran into a team that is really, really, really good and what they do really well defensively is not very inviting for our team and it hasn’t been, to be honest with you, all year long.
“We have struggled against pressure at times and even in our league and so I think it was a match-up that was probably pretty difficult for us, but I do want to commend our team for continuing to compete.”
UTSA guard Ereauna Hardaway thanked Aston for the opportunity to join the team after she elected to transfer last spring from the University of North Texas.
“I just want to start by saying thank you to coach for reaching out and allowing me to have the opportunity to play here,” Hardaway said. “I don’t think she knows, but the love that I gained for basketball this year is crazy.”
Hardaway said she loves all of her new friends.
“I had the best teammates,” she said. “We had a lot of ups and downs this season, but I really love them and I’m really grateful to have the opportunity to play here. It’s been a fun season for me. Everybody might not think it went how it was supposed to, but I had a great time this year.”
UTSA forward Cheyenne Rowe seconded Hardaway’s comments.
“It takes finding the right coach and Coach Aston is definitely the right coach,” said Rowe, who has played three seasons at UTSA following a transfer from James Madison. “She helped me gain my love for basketball again and the players, too. They bought into what me and Ereauna wanted.
“We wanted to win. We wanted our team to want to win. Having players that follow you, that listen to instructions, it’s amazing. I got to thank them for everything.”
UConn shrugged off a slow start offensively and moved easily into Monday’s round of 32 against either Iowa State or Syracuse. The Cyclones and the Orange were scheduled to play the second game of the day in Storrs, Conn., later Saturday.
In the final analysis of UTSA’s first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2009, Connecticut athletes were simply too big and two quick.
They pressed full court, trapped occasionally at halfcourt and forced 27 turnovers, leading to 35 points.
That the Huskies caused problems with their press didn’t come as a surprise. But the extent of the mayhem left the Roadrunners flustered early as they fell behind 19-6 at the end of one quarter and 48-14 at the half.
Connecticut All American Azzi Fudd, scoreless in a foul-plagued first half, started to heat up offensively in the third period as the Huskies continued to force the action on the other end.
By the end of the quarter, it was 75-30, and the outcome was no longer in doubt.
Though the Huskies finally took their foot off the gas in the last quarter, they finished with 90 or more points for the third game in a row and for the 16th time overall.
It was the most points given up by the Roadrunners all season even though the Huskies’ two All-Americans — Fudd and Sarah Strong — did not play in the fourth.
A team that prides itself on its play at the defensive end, UTSA held UConn to 49 percent shooting from the field, three points below its average.
The Huskies also struggled from the 3-point line, making only seven of 33, though many of the misses came on open looks from high-percentage, long-range shooters.
UTSA hit 40.9 percent from the field and 37.5 percent on six of 16 from the arc. Leading the Roadrunners were Cheyenne Rowe, Ereauna Hardaway and Damara Allen, all with 11 points apiece.
Rowe, the most outstanding player in the American tournament, finished with eight rebounds in her last game for the Roadrunners. Also in her last game, Hardaway had four rebounds and four assists.
Allen, a sophomore from Aurora, Colo., was a surprise starter at guard. She hit a bucket in the first quarter and finished four of nine from the field.
Junior forward Idara Udo had seven points and four rebounds. Together, Udo and Rowe, the Roadrunners’ major inside scoring threats, connected on only seven of 20 from the field.
For the Huskies, Strong scored 18 points and led the Huskies’ trapping defense with five steals. Forward Blanca Quinonez, the freshman of the year in the Big East, added 15 points and five rebounds.
The 6-foot-4 Quinonez, from Ecuador, also led the charge defensively with three steals and two blocked shots. As a team, the Huskies frustrated the Roadrunners with 19 steals and six blocks.
Guard Ashlynn Shade enjoyed a big day with 14 points and seven rebounds, and sophomore Kayleigh Heckel came off the bench to score 11.
First half
Led by Quinonez and Strong and a relentless pressure defense, the Huskies built a commanding 48-14 halftime lead.
UTSA trailed 8-4 early when Mia Hammonds retrieved a loose ball and hit a floater.
An Ereauna Hardaway jumper cut the UConn lead to 13-6 with two minutes left in the first period.
After that, it was pretty much all Huskies, who went on a 35-8 sprint to the halftime buzzer.
UConn forced 19 UTSA turnovers in the first half and turned them into 24 points.
Strong led the Huskies offensively with 12 points, followed by Shade with 10 and Quinonez with 10.
Quinonez highlighted a dizzying sequence with two baskets and a steal near the end of the half.
After picking up a steal off an errant pass from UTSA’s Allen, she dribbled three quarters of the court and sank a layup. It was the start of a 7-0 run to the buzzer for UConn.
The Huskies have been off since March 9, when they completed a three-game romp to the Big East postseason crown.
In the tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., Connecticut walloped Georgetown, 84-39, before romping past Creighton, 100-51, and Villanova, 90-51.
The Huskies have scored 80 or more points in 20 of 21 games since the turn of the new year.
On the flip side, their defense has been devastating during the same time period, yielding no more than 69 points and holding opponents to 49 or fewer 11 times.
UTSA, in turn, last played on March 14.
They won their last five games coming into the NCAA tournament, including a remarkable 4-0 push in four days for the American Conference postseason crown in Birmingham.
Records
UTSA 18-16
Connecticut 35-0
Coming up
NCAA Round of 32 at Storrs, Conn., Connecticut vs. Iowa State or Syracuse, Monday
Notable
UTSA will leave Connecticut still looking for its first NCAA tournament win. The Roadrunners are 0-3 all-time in the Big Dance.
Previously, they fell to Texas A&M, 91-52, in Baton Rouge, La., in 2008. The next year, they took Baylor to overtime in an 87-82 loss at Lubbock in 2009. Both years, UTSA played as a No. 15 seed against a No. 2.
UTSA assistant coach Amber Gregg has been part of all three of the program’s trips to the NCAA tournament. In 2008 and 2009, she was a player under Coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair. Now, Gregg is an assistant coach under Karen Aston.
UConn sophomore Sarah Strong and graduate student Azzi Fudd have both been named first-team All Americans by both the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Associated Press.
Strong is also a finalist for the Wade Trophy, given each year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association to the nation’s best player. Other finalists are Lauren Betts of UCLA, Mikayla Blakes of Vanderbilt and Madison Booker of Texas.