UConn takes Big East championship
HARTFORD, Conn. — Renee Montgomery scored 21 points and Maya Moore added 19 as No. 1 Connecticut beat No. 4 Rutgers 66-46 on Monday night to win the Big East regular season championship.
Tina Charles added 15 points and 17 rebounds for the Huskies, who won their second straight regular season championship and 13th in the last 15 seasons.
Connecticut (29-1, 15-1) earned the top seed in the conference tournament that starts Saturday. Rutgers (24-5, 14-2) will be the No. 2 seed.
With Connecticut leading by two points early in the second half, Charles scored six points during a 10-2 run that extended the lead to 44-34 with 10:49 left. It was Charles’ 14th double-double of the season.
Rutgers cut the deficit to six on Matee Ajavon’s free throws, but Montgomery answered with a 3-pointer to start a 22-8 spurt to close the game.
St. John’s 61
No. 9 Notre Dame 51
NEW YORK — Kia Wright scored 14 points and feisty, undersized St. John’s stunned the Irish, the second straight time the Red Storm upset a highly ranked Notre Dame team at its on-campus home.
St. John’s (16-13, 7-9) has won four of five, the only loss to top-ranked Connecticut when coach Kim Barnes Arico suspended six players for violating an unspecified team policy.
The only other time in 18 meetings that the Red Storm have beaten Notre Dame was on Jan. 4, 2006, when they upset the 12th-ranked Irish 66-63, also at Carnesecca Arena.
Syracuse 73
No. 14 West Virginia 51
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Freshman guard Erica Morrow scored a season-high 25 points and Chandrea Jones added 22 for Syracuse in the upset.
The Orange (22-7, 10-6) improved to 13-2 at home.
West Virginia (23-6, 12-4) had beaten Syracuse six straight times.
LaQuita Owens led the Mountaineers with 12 points. Olayinka Sanni, who was averaging 16.8 points, picked up her third and fourth fouls in a 2-second span in the first 3 minutes of the second half and finished with nine points on 4-of-11 shooting and had seven rebounds.
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