UConn overwhelms Temple women, 90-36

NORFOLK, Va. - Temple coach Tonya Cardoza learned last night that sentimentality is worth a few hugs and handshakes but not much more when it comes to playing powerhouse Connecticut in the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

Geno Auriemma, her former boss, gave her a warm embrace just before the opening tip. Then his Huskies rolled to a 90-36 victory in a second-round game of the Dayton Regional at the Ted Constant Convocation Center on Old Dominion's campus.

Actually, Auriemma had some compassion. He cleared his bench six minutes into the second half, but he couldn't do much more to lessen the beating, which was the worst in the second round in tournament history.

The Huskies used runs of 20-0 and 13-0 in the first half to build a 55-12 lead while shooting 77.8 percent from the field.

"When we're playing like this, it's impossible to beat us," Auriemma said. "I don't know what you do. Forget Tonya and her first two years coming in here with a young team from Temple. Any team is going to have a hard time competing against us.

"You don't know where to draw the line," he said of trying to be merciful. "What are you going to tell your players to do - stop making every shot because I have friends on the other sideline?"

UConn (35-0), the defending national champion, extended its NCAA-record winning streak to 74 games. Each victory has been by double digits.

Temple finished 25-9 under Cardoza, who became the Owls' coach in July 2008 after 14 seasons as a UConn assistant.

Virtually every prominent team has been crushed by Connecticut over the last two seasons. That didn't mean much to Temple sophomore Kristen McCarthy, who averages 15.2 points a game but scored two.

"It's a hard game for our seniors to go out - total blowout - it's pretty embarrassing," she said.

Connecticut heads to Sunday's regional semifinal against fourth-seeded Iowa State, which defeated 12th-seeded Wisconsin-Green Bay, 60-56, last night.

Last night was a great one for several people with Philadelphia ties, but none could be found on the Temple bench.

Auriemma, a Hall of Fame coach who grew up in Norristown, turned 54 yesterday. Germantown Academy graduate Caroline Doty finished with nine points for UConn, while Meghan Gardler, a Cardinal O'Hara graduate, scored eight. Gardler is the daughter of former Bishop Kenrick coach Buddy Gardler, who coached Auriemma in high school.

Connecticut opened with a bombing run that would have impressed the U.S. Naval Fleet docked about a mile away. Maya Moore, last year's national player of the year, hit a couple of threes on her way to a game-high 19 points. Kelly Farris finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, Tina Charles added 12 points, and Tiffany Hayes scored 11.

"They hurt you in so many ways right from the jump," McCarthy said. "You look at the score, and they were just killing us in so many aspects. We have pride, and nobody goes into the game thinking, 'Well, they've killed those other teams, they're going to kill us, too.' "

Temple's Qwedia Wallace was the only Owl to score in double figures, finishing with 12. McCarthy struggled in a 1-for-10 effort against the relentless Huskies defense.

One of the Temple seniors playing her final game was point guard LaKeisha Eaddy.

"It's tough to go out that way," Eaddy said. "They definitely showed why they are the No. 1 team in the nation."