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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The national championship-or-bust tour rolls on.
Top-ranked Connecticut got halfway to its goal of six women's NCAA tournament victories and its second national championship in six years Saturday with a 102-80 triumph against Oklahoma in the third round of the East Regional.
It was a victory that featured 33 turnovers by the Sooners, 21 steals and 57 percent shooting by the Huskies, and it earned Shea Ralph and Connecticut a date with LSU on Monday in the regional final with a trip to the Final Four as the prize.
The third-seeded Lady Tigers beat Duke 79-66 in the first semifinal.
|  | | Connecticut's Svetlana Abrosimova, left, and Oklahoma's Laneishea Caufield scramble for a loose ball. |
In the season after the Huskies' hopes of challenging for a championship ended in the third round against Iowa State, nothing is taken for granted.
"Everything is one step at a time," Ralph said. "If we don't
win this game, then we go home and we don't have three more to go.
We're going to enjoy this tonight and then we're going to get back
down to business tomorrow."
High expectations, often a problem for some teams, are the rule
at Connecticut, and coach Geno Auriemma said this team has handled
it well.
"All they've done is won a bunch of regular season games," he
said. "You keep pointing it out to them and they may get a little
bit angry, but I don't care.
"If you're a competitor, you want to win the national
championship."
The Huskies (33-1) wasted no time taking control against the
Sooners.
Trailing 9-6, Connecticut scored 18 straight points to lead 24-9
and used relentless pressure to force 20 turnovers by halftime.
They also hit 18 of their first 25 shots on the way to a 40-for-70
day, and got help from everyone.
Eleven Huskies scored, five in double figures.
"There's so many waves of people and they can play with such
abandon," Sooners coach Sherri Coale said. "They never have to
worry about fouling because if somebody gets in foul trouble, they
have someone else just as good coming in."
Oklahoma (25-8), which lost 84-68 to the Huskies on Dec. 29 in
Norman, Okla., and played them even in the second half, had similar
results this time. It trailed 57-42 at the break and merely kept it
from getting really lopsided thereafter.
Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams led Connecticut with 16 points
apiece, Svetlana Abrosimova had 15, Sue Bird 14 and Ralph 10. The
Huskies scored 100 points for the ninth time this season and second
time in the tournament.
"They have a great team and they play so well together," said
Phylesha Whaley, who led the Sooners with 24 points in her final
game. "You just have to guard them all the same. It's just hard to
guard a team like that that is that good."
Laneishea Caufield added 22 points and Stacey Dales 11 for
Oklahoma.
The Huskies' early blitz gave them a 24-9 lead after 6½ minutes,
about typical for a top-ranked team that outscored its opponents by
an average of 31.9 points this season and features two first-team
All-Americans in Ralph and Abrosimova.
The Sooners got no closer than 17 points the final 15 minutes,
but still finished with a school-record victory total only four
years after Coale's first squad went 5-22. It was Oklahoma's second
berth in the final 16.
The highlight for Oklahoma, other than being here, came in the
last seven minutes before halftime. Trailing 46-24 after two
baskets by Williams, the Sooners outscored the Huskies 18-11 the
rest of the way with Caufield getting 10 points.
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ALSO SEE
Womens College Basketball Scoreboard
Oklahoma NCAA Team Report
Connecticut NCAA Team Report
AUDIO/VIDEO
 The Huskies run the fast break to perfection.
avi: 531 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Kennitra Johnson goes coast-to-coast for the layup.
avi: 579 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Sue Bird finds Svetlana Abrosimova in the corner for three.
avi: 571 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Stacey Dales finds Phylesha Whaley with the no-look pass.
avi: 399 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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