STORRS, Conn. -- Rarely has so much been made of something that happens with such regularity. Connecticut won a basketball game Monday night. Just like the 99 games before that.
Extending its NCAA record streak, No. 1 UConn beat No. 6 South Carolina 66-55 for its 100th consecutive win. It was the Huskies' sixth victory this season against a team currently ranked in the top eight: Baylor, Florida State, Maryland, Notre Dame, South Carolina and Texas.
With 100 consecutive wins, UConn not only extended its record streak but also matched the sum of the two longest win streaks by other programs: Louisiana Tech's streak of 54 wins and Tennessee's streak of 46 victories. The Huskies, of course, also have streaks of 90, 70 and 47.
There is more to come from Gampel Pavilion, but here is how things looked at the final buzzer.
Player of the game: Gabby Williams is a marvel. She finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Huskies. She had more of each in the first half than A'ja Wilson and Alaina Coates combined. It isn't the volume of statistics but the manner in which she accumulates them. It's beating Wilson to the block and shooting low over her shoulder before Wilson could react. It's rising above Coates for a rebound. It's reading an entry pass from the weak side and flying across the lane to tip away a pass. Williams isn't a go-to player in the traditional sense of someone who can take the ball and get a shot for herself, but she is absolutely a go-to player in that she is going to go to the ball and make something happen.
Turning point: There is always a run, even if it's a small one. South Carolina kept Connecticut from accumulating momentum through most of the first half. When UConn scored, South Carolina answered. The Gamecocks took the Huskies, most notably Katie Lou Samuelson, out of their rhythm for stretches. They traded the lead and played the kind of back-and-forth game rarely seen here. But after being down a manageable two points when UConn's Napheesa Collier missed a 3-pointer with about 30 seconds left in the opening half, South Carolina nonetheless watched the margin balloon to a then-game-high six points at halftime.
First, Coates didn't get a body on Williams on Collier's miss with 30 seconds left. That allowed Williams to force a jump ball, then hit a jumper on the ensuing inbounds play. Then Brittany Cuevas-Moore turned the ball over with five seconds left -- just enough time for Collier to race the length of the floor and score. For 19-plus minutes, South Carolina did the hard part. Then it gave it away in 30 seconds and spent the rest of the game playing from behind.
How it was won: UConn can win with the scalpel, and it can win by bludgeoning opponents with a blunt instrument. This was more of the second style. The Huskies struggled to shoot even 40 percent from the field for much of the game but piled up rebounds and points off turnovers.
Stat of the game: 67 hours. Give or take a few minutes, that's how much basketball Connecticut has played since it last lost a game.
X factor: Canadian Olympian and two-time NCAA champion Kia Nurse played 34 minutes against Florida State, 38 minutes against Baylor, 38 minutes against Texas and all 40 minutes against Notre Dame. All of those games were within the season's first month. But while Nurse played just 18 minutes Monday (she aggravated an ankle injury early in the game, ESPN's Holly Rowe reported), UConn didn't miss much of a beat because of freshman Crystal Dangerfield. Able to split the seams of South Carolina's sizable interior defense, pull defenders toward her and find the open teammate, Dangerfield finished with seven assists and made her field goals count, one a no-hesitation 3-pointer.
Sums it up: Geno Auriemma's body language is sometimes performance art all its own. When Connecticut tied the win-streak record against South Florida, his smiles summed up a joyful romp. On this night, his two-arm, double-fist-pump celebration when Collier converted and drew a foul to finish a fast break in the closing seconds of the third quarter said in one image what even he would struggle to say in a thousand words. UConn was pushed, and it responded. Again.
What's next: UConn's remaining regular-season schedule is difficult by American Athletic Conference standards, but those aren't the standards by which the Huskies judge themselves. The finale at ranked South Florida is something to watch, but the Bulls didn't put up much of a fight when the teams met in Hartford earlier this season in the game that tied the record.
South Carolina plays again Thursday, but an SEC home game against last-place Vanderbilt should have some margin for error. This loss shouldn't do much damage to the pursuit of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but the Gamecocks still must play at Missouri and Texas A&M and potentially navigate an SEC tournament rematch against Mississippi State.