UConn rolls past Pitt; Stanford rips Arizona

No. 1 Connecticut 98, Pittsburgh 56: Tina Charles scored 24 points to become the sixth Connecticut player to reach 2,000 points in her career, and the visiting Huskies overwhelmed Pittsburgh yesterday for their 60th straight victory,.
Maya Moore, part of the inside-outside combination that has made these Huskies (21-0, 8-0 in Big East) one of the best teams in UConn's wildly successful history, added 22 points in a game that, as usual, was decided early.
Connecticut, now 10 victories away from matching its own NCAA women's record of 70 consecutive wins, opened leads of 15-4 and 19-6 in the opening 51/2 minutes. After Pitt got to within eight points at 21-13, the Huskies went on a 14-2 run that made it 35-15 and erased any doubt whether this would be another Huskies romp.
Shay Scott scored 18 for Pittsburgh (12-8, 1-6), which lost for the sixth time in seven games and is in serious danger of not making the NCAA tournament. The Panthers have dropped 25 in a row to the Huskies, who are 21-0 for a third consecutive season.
UConn is No. 1 in The Associated Press women's basketball poll for the 36th straight week, and is certain to surpass Louisiana Tech (1980-82) for the longest run atop the Top 25 when the next poll is released on Monday.

No. 2 Stanford 83, Arizona 62: Nnemkadi Ogwumike scored eight of her 27 points during a 10-0 run to open the second half and Stanford overcame a second straight halftime deficit to beat visiting Arizona yesterday.

Kayla Pedersen added 27 points and 13 rebounds for the Cardinal (19-1, 9-0 Pac-10), who won their 40th straight home game and finished the first half of the conference season with a perfect record for the second time in the past eight years.
But for the second straight game it took the Cardinal some time to get going.
After struggling on the offensive end early in Thursday's win over Arizona State, Stanford's problems in the first half against Arizona (9-10, 3-6) were defensive.
With freshman Davellyn Whyte leading the way, the Wildcats made eight 3-pointers in the first half, one shy of their season high for a game, and stayed right with the more talented Cardinal.

No. 3 Notre Dame 74, Syracuse 73: Ashley Barlow hit a 3-pointer with 34.2 seconds left, and visiting Notre Dame held off Syracuse yesterday.
After the Irish's Lindsay Schrader missed the front end of a 1-and-1, a held ball gave Syracuse a final possession with less than a second left. Tasha Harris' inbounds pass to Kayla Alexander in the lane was deflected away and the Irish escaped with a win.
Juanita Ward's three-point play had given the Orange a 73-71 lead with a minute left, but Barlow got open on the wing and saved Notre Dame (19-1, 6-1 Big East), which has beaten Syracuse (16-5, 3-5) 22 times in 23 meetings.
Freshman guard Skylar Diggins matched her season high with 21 points, Barlow had a season-high 19 points, and Brittany Mallory 11.
Ward led Syracuse with 16 points, Erica Morrow had 14, Vionca Murray 12 and Nicole Michael 11 before fouling out in the final minute.

No. 6 Nebraska 80, Colorado 64: Kelsey Griffin scored 24 points and visiting Nebraska remained unbeaten with win over Colorado last night.
Dominique Kelley matched her season high with 18 points for Nebraska (19-0, 6-0 Big 12), which is off to the best start of any Big 12 team since the conference's inception in 1996-97.
Cory Montgomery and Yvonne Turner added 11 each for the Cornhuskers, who won in Boulder for the sixth time in 31 games and remain the only undefeated team besides No. 1 Connecticut. The Huskies blew out Pittsburgh 98-56.
Bianca Smith and Chucky Jeffrey led Colorado (12-8, 2-5) with 14 points apiece for Colorado (12-7, 2-5). Jeffrey had 11 rebounds for her first career double-double and the Buffaloes suffered their season-high third straight loss.

No. 10 Xavier 74, Dayton 49: Katie Rutan scored 16 points, hitting five 3-pointers, and Xavier routed visiting Dayton last night.
Amber Harris led the Musketeers (16-3, 6-0 Atlantic-10) with 19 points and 14 rebounds to help Xavier go undefeated in January for the first time in school history.
Ta'Shia Phillips added 16 points and 15 rebounds for Xavier, which has won seven straight. The Musketeers dominated the boards, outrebounding the Flyers 55-29.
Xavier, which had 12 offensive rebounds in the first half to just two for Dayton, led 33-20 at the break.
Kristin Daughtery scored 13 points for Dayton (16-5, 4-2).

No. 16 West Virginia 72, Louisville 66: Vanessa House and Sarah Miles scored 17 points apiece to help West Virginia beat visiting Louisville last night.
House hit two crucial second half 3-pointers to keep the game out of the Cardinals
Miles matched her season high despite spending a good part of the first half and the start of the second half on the bench due to foul trouble.
Trailing by four at the break, West Virginia opened the half with a 15-4 run and was up seven before Louisville closed the gap to one.
After Liz Repella's layup, House hit a 3-pointer to extend the advantage back to six.
Monique Reid scored a career-high 29 points to lead Louisville (11-10, 3-5).

No. 17 Georgetown 59, Rutgers 50: Sugar Rodgers scored 27 points and Georgetown rebounded from a loss with a win over visiting Rutgers yesterday.
Rodgers came within two points of her career best and posted her highest total in Big East play three days after the Hoyas (18-3, 7-1) lost at Marquette to end a school-record 16-game winning streak.
Khadijah Rushdan scored 18 points and Monique Oliver added 12 for the Scarlett Knights (12-9, 4-3), who lost their second straight game and fifth consecutive on the road.
Georgetown led by at least five throughout the second half and stretched its advantage to 43-25 with a 16-3 run. Rodgers scored 10 points in that stretch, the last six on consecutive 3-pointers from the left wing off kickouts from Rubylee Wright.
Rutgers, which was outrebounded 41-30, never came within nine points after that.

New Mexico 60, No. 20 TCU 53: Amy Beggin scored 19 points and Eileen Weissmann added a career-high 17 to help New Mexico upset visiting TCU yesterday.
Helena Sverrisdotter scored 14 to lead the Horned Frogs (15-5, 5-2 Mountain West), who shot just 17 of 57 (29.8 percent) from the field. It was a ragged game from the outset, with both teams struggling to find a shooting touch.
After leading 21-19 at halftime, New Mexico (13-7, 5-3) found its rhythm in the second half. Midway through the period, New Mexico trailed 37-35, but the Lobos reeled off seven straight points that put them ahead to stay.
TCU climbed back to within 44-42 before Beggin hit consecutive 3-pointers to push the lead to 50-42 _ the largest advantage of the game.

No. 24 Green Bay 78, Valparaiso 54: Julie Wojta scored 14 points and Wisconsin-Green Bay used a 16-0 run to pull away from visiting Valparaiso and win yesterday.
The Phoenix (18-2, 7-2 Horizon) led 46-43 early in the second half before Wojta started the spurt with consecutive baskets. Heather Golden and Hannah Quilling sank 3-pointers, Kayla Tetschlag scored inside and Celeste Hoewisch made four free throws to cap the burst and give Green Bay a 62-43 edge midway through the half.
Tetschlag and Hoewisch each had 12 points for the Phoenix, who are tied with Detroit atop the conference. The two teams will play on Thursday. Wisconsin-Green Bay won the earlier meeting 71-46.
Raegan Moore scored 17 points off the bench for the Crusaders (6-14, 3-6), who were done in by 26 turnovers. Green Bay turned those miscues into a whopping 39 points.