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No. 1 Connecticut beats USF for 52nd straight win

Jan 5, 2010 - 3:37 AM By PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press Writer

HARTFORD, Conn.(AP) -- All-Americans Maya Moore and Tina Charles were on the bench with foul trouble. South Florida was making a run.

For most teams that would be a problem. Not top-ranked UConn.

Tiffany Hayes scored a season-high 22 points and the Huskies turned a 14-point halftime lead into a 84-42 rout of South Florida on Monday night to extend their winning streak to 52 games.

"This is the only place in America, where you've got to apologize for being up 14 at halftime," said UConn coach Geno Auriemma.

Moore added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the UConn (13-0, 2-0 Big East). Her 3-pointer with just under 7 minutes left gave the junior 1,680 points for her career and moved her into 10th place on the school's all-time scoring list, passing UConn assistant coach Shea Ralph.

Moore said the milestone never crossed her mind.

"All I'm looking at is that I had more turnovers (2) than assists (1) tonight," Moore said. "So, I've got to go and work on that."

Charles finished with 14 points, all of them in the second half. She also had eight rebounds

Hayes hit six of her 11 shots, including five 3-pointers.

"I've been hitting them in practice and shoot around, but they haven't been falling in games," she said. "They finally ended up falling in a game, so I am really happy about that."

Jessica Lawson had 17 points and eight rebounds to lead South Florida (8-5, 0-1).

USF had won eight of its previous 10 games, but the Bulls have never beaten the Huskies, falling to 0-9 in a series that dates back to 2002.

UConn has won each game in its current winning streak by double digits and is winning games this season by an average of more than 42 points per game.

The Huskies ran out to an 18-2 lead, forcing USF coach Jose Fernandez to burn two early timeouts. Hayes hit her first three shots, all 3s, and had 10 points during that run. Moore scored the other eight, before sitting down with two fouls.

Charles also picked up two first-half fouls, and Lawson took advantage. With UConn's center on the bench, she led the Bulls on an 11-2 run to close the half that cut the UConn lead to 14.

UConn used a 11-0 second-half run to go up 55-27 and put the game away.

"Whoever is going to beat these guys, Connecticut is also going to have to beat themselves," said USF coach Jose Fernandez. "That's the bottom line. They are going to have to shoot the ball poorly and the team that beats them is going to have really shoot the ball well."

The Huskies, who beat Seton Hall by 67 on Saturday, were not as sharp against USF, turning the ball over 12 times and committing 17 fouls.

The win was the Huskies' 27th in a row at the XL Center in Hartford. The Huskies haven't lost a conference home opener since Jan. 2, 1988, when Boston College beat them 72-69.

UConn's winning streak is the third longest in NCAA women's history, behind the school's own record of 70 from 2001-03 and Louisiana Tech's 54 from 1980-82.