UConn Sets Women's Tournament Record with 60-Point Win over Mississippi State

The Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team seems to make history every time it steps on the court. A 98-38 victory over Mississippi State in the Sweet 16 on Saturday is the latest feather in their cap. 

Per ESPN Stats & Info, UConn's 60-point margin of victory is the biggest in NCAA tournament history for a game played in the Sweet 16 or later. The largest margin of victory in tournament history on the men's side is Loyola's 111-42 win over Tennessee Tech in 1963. 

It's hard to find new ways to emphasize just how impressive the Lady Huskies are.

UConn finished just nine points shy of tying Loyola's mark, though this game likely would have finished with a similar margin of victory if head coach Geno Auriemma decided to keep his starters on the floor. His team led 84-20 after three quarters but took its foot off the gas and was outscored by four points in the final 10 minutes. 

Mississippi State failed to reach double-digits in each of the first three quarters, and the Bulldogs trailed 32-4 after 10 minutes. Breanna Stewart had a double-double less than 15 minutes into the game, per the American Athletic Conference:

Stewart finished with 22 points (on 8-of-10 shooting) and 14 rebounds in 25 minutes. Mississippi State's entire team didn't reach 10 rebounds until the first minute of the third quarter. 

The win was Connecticut's 72nd straight, 18 shy of tying the school and NCAA record set from 2008-11. The Lady Huskies' last loss came on November 17, 2014, against Stanford. This season, all but five of their wins were by at least 20 points. 

UConn's two lowest margins of victory this season were against Notre Dame and South Carolina, by a combined 22 points, but both of those teams fell out of the tournament Friday night. The only thing standing in the Lady Huskies' way of a fourth straight national title is complacency, it seems, because no one else is capable of beating them if all things are equal. 

By Adam Wells, Featured Columnist 

Mar 26, 2016