Albany. N.Y. – Finally, someone punched back. Finally. After the conga line of corpses the UConn women see nightly, the Huskies encountered Dayton, a team Geno Auriemma would call "one of the best teams we've played in the last five years."

And then – gulp – the UConn Huskies actually trailed by a point at halftime, causing the Twitterverse to all but start breathing into brown paper bags.

"I wasn't too worried about it," UConn senior/record setter Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was saying later. "I know the way my teammates are able to respond. More than anything, I think we were excited we had a challenge in front of us."

Their response was decisive and declarative. They grounded the Flyers with Mosqueda-Lewis' threes and some defense, earning their eighth straight trip and 15th overall to the Final Four, with a 91-70 victory at Times Union Center.

The Huskies (36-1) will play Maryland (34-2), a 58-48 winner over Tennessee, in the Final Four on Sunday night (approximately 8:30)at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.

Notre Dame meets South Carolina in the night's first national semifinal at 6:30 p.m.

Mosqueda-Lewis scored 27 points, setting the NCAA's career three-point record (393) in the process. Mosqueda-Lewis made her fifth 3-pointer of the game with 12:32 left, allowing her to eclipse Laurie Koehn of Kansas State and Heather Butler of Tennessee-Martin. Mosqueda-Lewis made seven of 10 three pointers in the game.

Tournament Most Outstanding Player Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck scored 23 points apiece.

And for a while, it looked as though Connecticut would need every blessed point, after Dayton's 44-43 lead at halftime and 7-for-10 3-point shooting.

"I can't say enough great things about the kids from Dayton and the way they compete, how well prepared they were and how well they executed their game plan," Auriemma said. "We knew going in this was going to be really difficult. Nothing that they did really surprised us. We knew they could shoot the ball. But having a game plan and executing it are two different things. They were phenomenal. Probably one best teams we've played in the last five years."

Imagine, though: a halftime deficit. In the regional final. For everyone who thought Auriemma was a maniac in the locker room: au contraire.

"What normal teams face every year, a lot, if it happens in Connecticut it's adversity," Auriemma said. "We have to be careful we don't make it any bigger than it normally would be. You play a game and one team is trying to score and other team is trying to stop you. Sometimes, the other team just makes shots.

"We go in down one, the demeanor of our team really wasn't that different than when we've been up 21," he said. "The look on their faces was more of 'we can't wait to go out there and take care of this.' There was no 'Oh my God, what happened?' We need to be careful at UConn. We need to be treated like mortals. Other teams are allowed to make a lot of shots, too."

Indeed. Ally Malott (14 points) and Andrea Hoover (13 points) were doing so. At least until the second half when the Huskies listened to their coaches.

"We gathered as coaches and then told them we would all really appreciate it if, just once, one of you would put your hands up," Auriemma said. "If one of you would, it might catch on."

Malott: "It was a little harder to get open in the second half."

Malott and Hoover joined Tuck, Stewart (16 rebounds to go with her 23 points) and Mosqueda-Lewis on the All-Tournament team.

Dayton finished 28-7 and with the respect of a nation of women's basketball fans.

"That was fun," Dayton coach Jim Jabir said. "I'm really proud of our guys. We competed. We weren't intimidated. They're the best team in the country. Bar none. Geno's got great players. I know that. But he gets them to play at such a high level. For a long time, we hung around. I couldn't be more proud. This was a great day."

Auriemma said his team will enjoy this for a day or two and then start worrying about doing this all over again.

"I love going to the Final Four," he said. "I don't care how many times in a row."

m.dimauro@theday.com

Twitter: @BCgenius