Geno Auriemma took a strange delight in seeing his Connecticut team tie the NCAA Division I women’s record for consecutive victories in a game in which it struggled mightily on offense.
“Maybe it’s fitting it happened in a game like this,” Auriemma said after the visiting Huskies tied Louisiana Tech’s record of 54 straight wins by beating Seton Hall 53-48 Wednesday night.
“Over the years we’ve been known as a team that scores a lot of points. Everybody talks about Connecticut’s offense. But very few people ever mention how good our defense is year in, year out. So it’s fitting the game that ties that record is done because our defense was so good [Wednesday night].”
Third-ranked Connecticut (15-0, 3-0 Big East) had to play tremendous defense to overcome a night on which it was held to season lows for points, field-goal percentage (29.8), field goals (17), three-pointers (1) and assists (9) by Seton Hall (8-5, 2-1).
Connecticut will try to break the record set by Louisiana Tech in 1980-82 against Georgetown on Saturday at the Hartford Civic Center. The Huskies have a 55-game overall winning streak at home and a 96-game streak in conference at home.
UCLA holds the Division I men’s record with an 88-game winning streak between 1971 and ’74.
– Cappie Pondexter, a sophomore guard from Chicago’s Marshall High School, scored on a driving layup with 28 seconds left and finished with 23 points to help Rutgers surprise visiting No. 19 Villanova 58-57.
Phelan to retire
Mt. St. Mary’s men’s coach Jim Phelan, 73, will retire after this season following a remarkable 49-year career in which he amassed more than 800 wins.
The Emmitsburg, Md., school called a press conference for Thursday, and Phelan will announce his decision to retire at that time, a source close to the team told the Associated Press.
No one has coached more college basketball games (1,339) over more seasons than Phelan, whose 824 career victories is the most among active coaches and fourth on the career list behind Dean Smith (879), Adolph Rupp (876) and Clarence “Big House” Gaines (828).
