Huskies beat Cardinals for American title
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Louisville, KY (SportsNetwork.com) - Breanna Stewart scored 22 points and No. 1 Connecticut bounced back from its largest deficit of the season Monday to win the first-ever American Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 68-48 victory over No. 3 Louisville.
Bria Hartley added 14 points and the Huskies (31-0, 18-0 American) wrapped up their third undefeated regular season in six years with another win over the Cardinals (28-3, 16-2).
UConn beat Louisville 81-64 on Feb. 9 in a rematch of last year's national championship game but trailed 7-0 in the opening minutes of this one -- its biggest hole of the season by three points.
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Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, who scored 13, knocked down a 3-pointer for UConn's first points and the Huskies later used an 11-0 burst to take a 33-22 lead.
It was 43-31 at halftime and UConn increased its lead despite shooting 32.1 percent in the second half. Stewart finished with 14 rebounds and Mosqueda- Lewis had 10.
The reigning national champions pushed their winning streak to 37 games and moved to 15-1 all-time against the Cardinals, the last loss coming in the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 17, 1993.
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Tia Gibbs scored 16 points and Sara Hammond had 12 to lead Louisville, which had won five in a row since its last loss to UConn.
Monday was the regular-season finale for both teams. The conference tournament starts on Friday.
It was UConn's first unbeaten regular season since 2009-10, the second of its back-to-back 39-0 national championship runs.