By Doug Feinberg
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. ó UConn turned its showdown with No. 2 Stanford into another rout.
Still, the top-ranked Huskies considered it just another win.
Maya Moore scored 23 points and Tina Charles added 20 to help Connecticut win its 49th straight game, an 80-68 victory Wednesday in front of a sellout crowd of 16,294.
“We’re 10-0 and beat a really good team,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “But we get no trophies, no rings, no nothing. Hopefully we get a chance to play them again in the Final Four.”
The Huskies (10-0) won their first nine games this season by at least 25 points and an average of 46. UConn hadn’t faced a team the caliber of the Cardinal, whom the Huskies beat last season in the national semifinals en route to a perfect 39-0 record and sixth NCAA title.
The Cardinal (9-1) proved to be no match as UConn extended the third-longest winning streak in women’s basketball history. UConn won 70 straight from 2001-03 and Louisiana Tech had a 54-game streak from 1980-82.
“They are definitely head and shoulders above us and play at a different pace,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “I’m proud of our team. We’ve had a really tough stretch. We can learn a lot from this game. We’ll benefit from it. For us call it a little ‘w.’ ”
Stanford, which beat then-No. 7 Duke and third-ranked Tennessee last week, was the last team to beat UConn, topping the Huskies in the 2008 Final Four.
It was the 44th meeting of the top two teams in the poll: No. 1 leads 25-19. UConn has been involved in 13 of those games, going 11-2 ó including an 8-1 mark as the No. 1 team. Auriemma attributes the success to UConn treating it like any other game.
“You’re playing at Connecticut, it’s why you came here,” Auriemma said. “It’s not the game of the century. It’s a game on a Wednesday, and we treat it like that and I think it helps us.”
Kalana Greene added 17 points and Tiffany Hayes had 16 for UConn, which has won every game during its current run by at least 10 points.
Nnemkadi Ogwumike scored 20 points and Kayla Pedersen added 14 for the Cardinal.
UConn trailed 44-42 early in the second half before going on a 30-6 run.