Durham, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis shot the lights out from 3-point range and Breanna Stewart had a dominant inside game, as top- ranked Connecticut dismantled No. 2 Duke, 83-61, Tuesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Mosqueda-Lewis, who missed eight games with a nerve contusion in her right elbow, went 7-of-11 from beyond the arc and scored 21 points.
"I was just going to leave her as a 'let me just see how it goes and play it by ear.' If she looks good, then just play her as long as she feels good," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "And I didn't have any expectations necessarily of what she would do. We were prepared to go the whole game without her if we had to. But having said that, I don't think we would've won the game the way we won it without her. She's a pretty special player I think. I think she proved it tonight."
Stewart totaled 24 points and 11 rebounds. Stefanie Dolson had 14 points and nine rebounds. Bria Hartley added 13 points for the Huskies (11-0), who beat Duke for a seventh straight time.
"I think these are the reasons why we come to Connecticut, to play in the big games," Stewart said. "They don't happen all the time, but we know we have a huge target on our back and teams are always going to give us their best run. That's what you want to do. That's fun; that's competitive."
Chelsea Gray had 13 points for the Blue Devils (10-1), who also received 11 points and eight boards from Haley Peters. Tricia Liston and Alexis Jones each had 10 points.
UConn, which hadn't played since a 97-37 rout of UC Davis on Dec. 5, moved to 15-3 in matchups between No. 1 and 2 teams. The Huskies made half of their 24 3-point tries.
Tuesday's game, which was part of the Jimmy V Classic, saw the Huskies race to a commanding first-half lead thanks to a dominating run. A jumper by Peters had Duke within 12-11, but UConn scored the next eight points.
A 3-pointer by Mosqueda-Lewis with five minutes remaining widened the gap to 38-15, and the Huskies carried a 41-26 lead into the half.
Elizabeth Williams made a layup with eight minutes remaining in the game to get the Blue Devils within 65-52.
UConn then called timeout and the Huskies pulled away. Mosqueda-Lewis sandwiched 3-pointers around a pair of Stewart free throws to expand the difference to 73-52. The run, which ended at 14-0, was capped by a 3-pointer from Mosqueda-Lewis with nearly three minutes left.
"When we started executing on reversing the ball and playing off of each other is when our runs came," Gray acknowledged. "We were getting good looks and we were getting open shots. Some didn't fall. However, when we would take a one- pass shot or not executing the plays or going through them and staying with our mental focus and focusing on what we needed to do offensively, that's when it translated to their run."
Duke, which had a 24-game home winning streak broken, fell to 42-3 against non-conference opponents at home since 2008-09 with all three losses to Connecticut.
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