COLUMBIA, S.C. -- UConn's Breanna Stewart heard the roar of the South Carolina crowd and her face just lit up like a little kid who has a new bike and has been waiting for the weather to get warm enough to ride it. It was hard for her to stop smiling, in fact, as Monday's game against South Carolina got underway.
Hey, when you work as hard as the Huskies do to perfect the game of basketball, you'd probably be grinning from ear to ear, too, at a chance to show it off in front of 18,000 people -- even if most of them were cheering against you.
Actually, especially if all those folks were hoping to see you stumble.
"It's a lot of fun," Stewart said after the top-ranked Huskies' 66-54 victory over No. 2 South Carolina. "To be at someone else's home court, where they have a sell-out crowd and everyone is cheering against you, that's exciting for us. The odds are against us, and we have to find a way to fight and win the game."
We have to disagree with Stewart on one point: The odds really were not against UConn. It was a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, but the gap between the two was evident throughout the game. Realistically, though, no one who regularly watches women's basketball was expecting anything different than what transpired.
Still, just because we saw it coming doesn't mean the Huskies shouldn't be lauded for making it happen yet again.
The numbers are numbing: The Huskies have won 60 games in a row, which is still 11 games away from being their second-longest streak. Their longest, of course, is 90. Yeah, 60 in a row is practically a "meh" streak for this program.
UConn is 19-3 in games matching teams ranked 1-2. The Huskies ended the Gamecocks' 45-game home winning streak at Colonial Life Arena. They held South Carolina junior center Alaina Coates -- a candidate for SEC player of the year who had 27 points against Kentucky last Thursday -- to just two points on 1-of-6 shooting.
UConn forward Morgan Tuck, who has had limited court time for the past month to give her knee some rest, played 33 minutes Monday and had a big hand in making Coates a non-factor offensively.
Tuck is a redshirt junior, part of the same class as seniors Stewart and Moriah Jefferson. UConn coach Geno Auriemma is famously known for his quips -- including joking Monday that Tuck "can't run and can't jump" -- but he was also downright sentimental talking about the trio that has the Huskies so solidly on the path for a fourth consecutive NCAA title.
"I appreciate them more and more every day," Auriemma said. "Some of the plays that they made are unbelievable. The shots that Stewie makes. The way Moriah gets in the lane. How tough Tuck is on one leg. I just can't say enough about those guys."
Stewart had 25 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots. Tuck had 16 points and five rebounds. Jefferson had 12 points and six assists. Stewart and Jefferson each played all 40 minutes, and they looked like they could have played 40 more.
The Huskies so completely dominate their American Athletic Conference foes that they could almost sleepwalk through some of those games. To their credit, though, they don't ever do that.
However, Auriemma acknowledged that a game like Monday's gets the Huskies' blood pumping. He could tell by the way they practiced, their mood at shoot-around, the look in their eyes before tipoff. They were ready for whatever the Gamecocks could throw at them. And it turned out, that wasn't as much as South Carolina coach Dawn Staley hoped for.
South Carolina at its best is a team that can pound the ball inside to Coates and A'ja Wilson, with guard Tiffany Mitchell as a perimeter scoring threat, mostly with drives to the basket.
But not much of that worked Monday. Coates, as mentioned, was neutralized as a scoring threat. Wilson suffered an injured leg in the second quarter and left the game, not returning to the court until near the end of the third quarter.
She finished with 13 points and six rebounds, and didn't seem too concerned after the game about her leg. Wilson also was upbeat about what the Gamecocks learned from facing UConn, which beat South Carolina 87-62 last year in Storrs, Connecticut. The sophomore Wilson has been trying to take a bigger leadership role this season, and she showed toughness and resolve Monday.
Mitchell, who took a hard fall on a drive to the basket last week against Kentucky and then sat out most of that game with an injured back, didn't really look like her usual self against the Huskies.
Part of that, no doubt, is because UConn often does that to opposing players. But part of it was also that Mitchell appears to be second-guessing herself a bit after being called for some charges in recent games, including the play last week on which she was hurt. Mitchell ended up 4-of-12 for 12 points.
The bottom line for the Gamecocks was that their guard play on the offensive end just wasn't very good. Khadijah Sessions, Bianca Cuevas and Tina Roy were a combined 2-of-16 from the field.
One South Carolina player actually looked very confident on offense, though: Forward Sarah Imovbioh, who was 6-of-6 from the field, finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. She played her first three years at Virginia, and transferred to South Carolina for her final season.
Imovbioh scored in double figures just twice previously this season, and not against opponents that are anything like mighty UConn. So this confidence boost could help her and the Gamecocks going forward.
"I appreciate them more and more every day. Some of the plays that they made are unbelievable." Geno Auriemma on Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck
Because now they return to a difficult SEC schedule. Thursday, South Carolina hosts Florida, which is currently in third place in the league. Then on Monday, South Carolina plays at Tennessee (ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET). The Lady Vols are having their troubles this season -- they barely stayed in the Associated Press poll this week at No. 25 -- but going to Knoxville is still never an easy trip.
Staley admitted she was disappointed that South Carolina wasn't able to reward the Gamecock fans -- some of whom staked their place in line for seats early Monday morning -- with a victory. But she's confident those fans will be back, because the support that program has been building is a long-term thing. And the series with UConn will continue.
Next up for the Huskies? They will spend Valentine's Day beating up on Temple back in Auriemma's hometown of Philadelphia. Maybe that isn't fair, predicting victories before they happen, but it's becoming harder and harder to picture UConn being defeated this season, no matter what the scenario.
The distance between Nos. 1 and 2 on Monday was obvious. Whether South Carolina, or any other team, can make that space seem any smaller -- well, that continues to be the question nobody is able to answer in the affirmative.
"I'm really proud of our team tonight," Auriemma said, and he had so many reasons to be. The Huskies make excellence like this seem completely routine.