NEW ORLEANS – Skylar Diggins needed a moment to compose herself. Her stellar career at Notre Dame had just come to an end.
The hometown star couldn’t have asked for much more in her four years playing for the Irish. She just couldn’t deliver a national championship.
Diggins and Notre Dame fell short for the first time this season against UConn, losing 83-65 on Sunday night in the Final Four.
“It’s been a dream come true to play for my hometown school right in my backyard,” she said. “It’s an experience I’ll never forget.”
Because of Diggins, Notre Dame was able to dominate UConn in a way no other team has since the Huskies won their first national championship in 1995. The Irish (35-2) won seven of eight meetings before losing Sunday night, in no small part because of their star with her distinctive white headband.
“She’s a champion,” coach Muffet McGraw said. “We didn’t win it, but what she’s done for us has been amazing. She leaves Notre Dame as the most celebrated and decorated player, the best player ever.”
The loss ended an incredible season for Notre Dame and left Diggins without a national championship. She had accomplished nearly everything else at the school, including helping her Irish turn around their rivalry against the Huskies.
Diggins said she spoke with Auriemma after the loss.
“Don’t let this define my career,” she said he told her, and that “I’ve done more for women’s basketball than some people have done who have won four championships.”
“He just told me I was a good player,” she said. “You respect that coming from such a good coach.”
Diggins brought a rock star quality to the Irish, with fans including Lil Wayne and more than 300,000 followers on Twitter by the time her career came to an end. She had the talent to go with it, too, as a two-time All-American.
Auriemma said Diggins has the “it” factor.
“She has an uncanny ability to capture the moment,” Auriemma said. “It’s one reason she’s been so successful she has that mindset that I was worried no one on our team has.”
The Irish had won the three meetings this season by one point, two points and in triple overtime. They just couldn’t pull off a fourth victory over their rivals.
They had no answer for Breanna Stewart.
The stellar freshman scored a career-high 29 points to go with four blocks and was seemingly everywhere in leading the Huskies back to the national championship game with an 83-65 win over Notre Dame on Sunday night.
The Huskies (34-4) will face Louisville in the title game Tuesday night, and it will be an all-Big East affair after the Cardinals rallied to beat California 64-57 in the other semifinal. UConn will be going for its eighth national championship to match Tennessee for the most in women’s basketball history.
“Once you get here you’re only going to beat great teams. And the reason Notre Dame has beaten us seven of the last eight times is because they’re really, really good,” Auriemma said. “For one night, that’s what’s great about the NCAA tournament, for one night, for just this night, we just needed to be better than them, and we were.”
The Huskies built a 10-point halftime lead playing incredible defense and Notre Dame (35-2) could only get within six in the second half as its school record 30-game winning streak came to an end.
The Huskies and Irish have developed the best rivalry in women’s basketball over the past few seasons, and this game might have been the final chapter between the two with Notre Dame headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.
Two years ago, the Huskies won the first three meetings before Notre Dame shocked them in the national semifinals. Notre Dame had won seven of the previous eight meetings before Sunday night and this one, for once, started slowly. With the teams so familiar with each other, getting easy baskets was virtually impossible. Notre Dame went nearly 7½ minutes without a field goal missing 14 consecutive shots.
While UConn would usually knockout most opponents during a scoreless stretch like that, the Huskies couldn’t take advantage against the Irish scoring only four points themselves.
Neither team led by more than four points for the first 16 minutes. But trailing 26-25 with 3:44 left in the half, UConn took over. Bria Hartley, who has struggled all season while recovering from an ankle injury she suffered over the summer, was the spark. The junior guard started the spurt with a 3-pointer and added a nifty pullup moments later to make it 32-26.
After Notre Dame scored to pull within four, Morgan Tuck put back a miss and Stewart hit a 3-pointer. A Kelly Faris layup with 3.9 seconds left capped the burst and made it 39-29 at the break.
“I thought we looked nervous coming out and I don’t know why we did,” McGraw said. “We’ve been here before and certainly should have felt differently. We didn’t get into a rhythm where we could get comfortable. We got in that giant hole at halftime, that was difference in the game.”
Diggins was 0 for 6 from the field in the first half as the Huskies harassed her all over the court. She scored the Irish’s first two points on free throws and didn’t have another point until getting a steal early in the second half and converting it for the easy layup to make it 42-35. She tried to do everything she could to rally her team. Twice she chased down Hartley on the break to block her shot.
UConn led 50-43 with 12:22 left before Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Stewart hit back-to-back 3s to give the Huskies their biggest lead of the game.
Notre Dame wasn’t done, their star freshman Jewell Loyd scoring five points during a 9-2 run to get the Irish within 61-55.
That was as close as they could get as Stewart and UConn scored the next seven points to seal the victory. Stewart was the most heralded freshman coming into the season, but struggled through the middle part of the year. But ever since the Big East tournament she’s really been on a roll.
“Every player, especially young players, deal with things differently,” Auriemma said. “And I think when the season ended, it just let the air out of the balloon and she said, ‘Now I just want to play basketball.’ My God, she was amazing tonight.”
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