UConn women: Unbeaten, unchallenged

Durham, N.C. - Maya Moore was talking about UConn's team defense Monday night when she shared coach Geno Auriemma's philosophy on the subject with a room full of media.

"'It's not about who's right. It's about gettin' it right,'" said Moore, a UConn junior.

That was a perfect illustration of the top-ranked Huskies' entire game plan, too, in an 81-48 victory over No. 6 Duke before a sweating, standing, shouting crowd of 9,314 "Cameron Crazies" at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

All five starters scored in double figures for UConn (18-0), which won its 57th straight game. The team connected on 13 of 25 3-pointers after going 2-for-18 from long range in its previous game. And the Huskies completed a weekend that starting guard Caroline Doty said made her grateful to be playing the game again after her comeback from a knee injury.

"Maybe they're supposed to prove themselves over and over and over again. This past weekend was unbelievable," said Auriemma, whose team beat No. 3 Notre Dame in a 9 p.m. game Saturday as part of ESPN's College GameDay, turned around and flew to Duke on Sunday and beat the Blue Devils with another complete performance in another nationally televised game on Monday.

"It's as good as I've felt in a long time."

Moore finished with 20 points and six 3-pointers, Kalana Greene scored 18 points, Doty and fellow sophomore Tiffany Hayes had 13 points each, and Tina Charles had 10 points and 14 rebounds. It was the fourth straight game with double figures in points and rebounds for Charles, the Huskies' senior center, who was named Big East Player of the Week earlier in the day, her fourth such honor of the season and third straight.

After Saturday's game, Auriemma was asked how good he thought the players were on the team aside from Moore and Charles, the All-Americans. He said he looked forward to finding out … and it didn't take long.

Greene is more and more impressive with each game, while Doty and Hayes are still proving themselves in clutch situations against some of the nation's best teams.

"Caroline, Tiffany and Kalana did great tonight," Auriemma said. "… If we don't make those plays on the perimeter, we're in trouble. It took 'em a little bit to get their bearings, Caroline picking up her dribble and getting trapped, Tiffany dribbling into three or four people.

"As the game went along, you could see the look on their face (change)."

UConn led 38-28 at halftime, a solid half for Duke in which the Devils got 11 points from Jasmine Thomas and were patient with the ball. Duke limited UConn to two fast-break points and outscored the Huskies 12-8 in second-chance points.

Duke caused a UConn turnover with nine seconds remaining before halftime that allowed Thomas to score a layup at the buzzer.

Thomas also started the second half with a steal and a layup that cut the margin to 38-30, but Hayes responded with a 3-pointer for UConn. Greene hit a pull-up jump shot on a fast break and Doty drove and was fouled, hitting both free throws to make it 45-30.

"They could probably run with the pros transition-wise," Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "I just felt that our IQ dropped in the second half and we made some choices that hurt us greatly. … You have to play the game, whatever the game is that night and the game tonight was ball control."

Moore missed the final 8 minutes, 24 seconds of the first half for UConn after picking up her second foul. She called herself "proud" watching from the bench as Greene, Doty and Hayes helped the Huskies maintain their poise in a tight game in a pressure-packed atmosphere.

"I was cheesing like a little kid in a candy store because they were doing so well," Moore said. "Tiffany would come in and make a shot. Caroline was responding to whatever difficulties there were in the game beautifully. Kalana, just confident."

It was UConn's sixth win over a ranked team this season, beating those opponents by an average of 25.7 points per game. The Huskies will next play in a Big East Conference game Saturday at Villanova.