Women’s Basketball: UConn rides 59-game win streak into Pete on Saturday

When the Pitt women’s basketball team takes the floor Saturday at 2 p.m., the team will take… When the Pitt women’s basketball team takes the floor Saturday at 2 p.m., the team will take on one of the top forces ever in college basketball.

The No. 1 Connecticut Huskies (20-0, 7-0 Big East) are currently on a 59-game winning streak dating back to last season and return four starters from the team that went undefeated and won the national championship.

The streak is the second longest in women’s NCAA Division I history, following only the Huskies own 70-game win streak from 2001-2003.

The Huskies have the number one scoring offense (83.2 points per game) and the number one scoring defense (44.0 points per game) in the Big East. Their average margin of victory is 39.2 points, which leads the entire country. The Huskies’ lowest margin of victory this year is 12 points.

The next closest is Nebraska, winning games by an average of 23.8 points.

“I have watched many UConn teams, and I believe this is the best UConn team,” Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said after Connecticut defeated the Scarlet Knights 73-36 Jan. 26. “I do not know if this is the deepest team, but this team is like a well-oiled machine.”

Three Connecticut players average scoring in double figures. Junior Maya Moore leads the Huskies and the Big East with 18.6 points per game.

As a sophomore, Moore was the consensus National Player of the Year after breaking the Connecticut single-season scoring record with a total of 754 points. The 2009 Big East Player of the Year, she was the fastest to reach the 1,000-point milestone in Connecticut basketball history.

Tina Charles, who Stringer called “the most dynamic and quick center in the game today,” averages 17.3 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.

Kalana Greene adds 12.5 points per contest, while Tiffany Hayes nears double figures with 9.5 points per game.

When Connecticut played then-No. 3 Notre Dame for the first women’s basketball College GameDay event, the Huskies dominated the Fighting Irish 70-46.

Earlier in the season, Connecticut played then-No. 2 Stanford and won 80-68.

“It is almost a shame to women’s basketball that they do not play in many competitive games,” Stringer said. “[Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma] does not have to bring the level of his team down, but other teams have to be better.”

Tomorrow, Pitt (12-7, 1-5 Big East) will try to be that team.

The Panthers earned their first Big East win 72-58 over Providence on Jan. 23, snapping a five-game losing streak.

In the victory, the team found the balanced scoring it had been searching for since the beginning of the Big East season. Taneisha Harrison led the way with 22 points, while Jania Sims and Shayla Scott added 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Consequently, Harrison was named to the Big East weekly honor roll announced on Jan. 25. It was Harrison’s first selection.

Besides leading the Panthers against the Friars, Harrison scored in double figures three out of the last four games and averaged 15.8 points during that time.

After Pitt’s 69-54 loss to West Virginia on Jan. 17, Sims said once the Panthers get their first victory “there will be no looking back.”

Unfortunately for the Panthers, their first Big East victory came right before they face off against basketball’s juggernaut.

If Pitt wants to put an end to Connecticut’s winning streak, they’ll have to find a way to cure a problem that plagued them throughout their losing streak and even in their victory over Providence: turnovers.

Pitt has turned the ball over 118 times in the past six games, averaging 18.8 turnovers per contest.

Connecticut is third in the Big East in turnover margin, turning the ball over 7.67 times less than their opponents. In contrast, Pitt turns the ball over .47 times more.

Pitt must work to limit Connecticut’s possessions — and the amount of times the Huskies get out in transition — by taking care of the basketball.

It will be a battle of streaks when Pitt and Connecticut tipoff on Saturday. The Huskies will look to add to their historic 59-game win streak, while the Panthers hope to build a win streak of two — and put the five game losing skid even further behind them.