UConn Still at the Top of Women's College Basketball

On a snowy night in Storrs, the South Carolina Gamecocks entered Gampel Pavilion ranked as the #1 team in the nation. By the end of the game, the homestanding Connecticut Huskies made sure the country knew who was truly at the top of the women’s college basketball mountain.

Despite a valiant effort, South Carolina was throttled by UConn 87-62 in front of a crowd of 10,167. Connecticut’s Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis led all scorers with 23 points, including 5 of 6 from three-point range. Breanna Stewart was right behind her with 22, 8 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Morgan Tuck (17) and Moriah Jefferson (16) also finished in double figures.

Aleighsa Welch (17 points, 11 rebounds), Tiffany Mitchell (17 points), and A’ja Wilson (10 points off the bench) were the major contributors for South Carolina.

Monday’s win reasserted that, despite the hiccup at Stanford, Connecticut is still the best in college basketball. UConn leads the nation in scoring margin by a large margin (41.5 per game) and was able to put up 87 and win by 25 over the presumed #1 team in the country, a team that had also been soundly beating their opponents (The Gamecocks are second in the nation in scoring margin with 28.1). South Carolina gave their all to keep up with them, so to take care of them as easily as they did really says something about the type of team the 2015 Huskies are.

Moving forward it will be exciting to see if these two meet again at the Final Four in Tampa. UConn will most likely have the easier path. The American Athletic Conference really has no match for the Husky Machine. Their only ranked opponent is at #25 South Florida in the final game of the season. Connecticut beat USF 92-50 on January 18th.

For South Carolina, the road may be a bit tougher. The SEC is one of the top conferences in women’s basketball. So far South Carolina has fared well in league play. They are 10-0 and winning by an average margin of 23 points. In the three ranked SEC games they played (#10 Kentucky, #12 Texas A&M, and at #22 Georgia) they won by an average of 16.3 points. The Gamecocks end the regular season against three currently-ranked opponents: #6 Tennessee, #13 Mississippi State, and at #10 Kentucky. Then who knows what the SEC Tournament holds.

Despite the loss, Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks are still one of the top teams in Women’s college basketball. It’s just that the decision on Monday shows UConn is still the best.