SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Say farewell to Connecticut's 30-game winning streak. Goodbye to Notre Dame's 0-for-9 drought against No.
1-ranked teams.
|  | | Notre Dame's Alicia Ratay, left, and Meaghan Leahy might be celebrating a No. 1 ranking next week. |
Does that mean a new No. 1?
Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma thought so after watching No. 3 Notre Dame defeat his top-ranked team 92-76 on Monday, the Huskies' worst loss in more than seven years.
In his mind, Notre Dame is now No. 1 in women's basketball.
"Absolutely," said Auriemma, whose team has held the top ranking in 30 straight polls. "There's not even a question about that."
The Associated Press will not release another poll until next Monday, and Notre Dame (17-0, 6-0 Big East) has a game before then,
at Seton Hall on Sunday.
But on this day, in the same building where the Notre Dame men ended UCLA's 88-game winning streak in 1974, the Irish clearly were
the better team in beating UConn for the first time in 12 tries and getting their first win over a No. 1 team.
They shot 57 percent, handled Connecticut's pressure defense and got inspired play from injured starters Ruth Riley and Kelley
Siemon.
And it all happened on national TV in front of the first sellout crowd for a women's game at the Joyce Center -- 11,481. Notre Dame
coach Muffet McGraw could not have found a better way to sell her program.
"Kids turn that game on TV and everybody knows UConn is a great team and we beat them, so we must be a great team," McGraw said. "I think it gives us credibility across the nation. I think people will talk about Notre Dame now as well as Connecticut."
"I told Muffet before the game, the best thing that could happen today would be if Notre Dame won -- for the Big East, for women's basketball, for their home crowd," Auriemma said. "I think it's a great thing.
"Not a great thing for us because you want to win every game. But we didn't deserve to win. We didn't play well enough to win."
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