By: Joe Lami

STANFORD, Calif.—

The Stanford Cardinal defeated the Connecticut Huskies 88-86 in overtime on Monday night, ending the Huskies’ 47-game winning streak.

The Cardinal forced overtime due to a clutch three-pointer made by senior point guard, Amber Orrange, with just three seconds left in the game to bring the score to 77-77. “That shot that Amber made, I thought was the shot of the night,” added Stanford coach, Tara VanDerveer. Orrange finished second in scoring for the Cardinal, with 17 points. She also had five rebounds and four assists.

Connecticut jumped out ahead in overtime with a three-pointer made by Morgan Tuck, just seconds into the third period. Connecticut owned the first part of overtime, until Stanford went on a 6-0 run that lasted two minutes, allowing the Cardinal to take the game.

Stanford did a great job on defense, as UConn’s two pre-season All-Americans were held to 35 points combined. Brianna Stewart led the way with 23 points, but shot only 8-for-18 while doing so. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was no where to be seen in the first half, as she finished the first twenty minutes with only two points, both of which came from the foul line. She ended up finishing the night with 12 points, after putting up 30 against UC Davis on Friday, and a terrible shooting percentage of 28%. Much in thanks to Stanford Sophomore, Karlie Samuelson, who was on Mosqueda-Lewis like glue all night. “Karlie was great tonight on Kaleena,” added VanDerveer.

The Cardinal worked the ball around well all night, as nine different players got on the board. Sophomore, Lili Thompson, once again led the way, as she finished the game with 24 points. Samuelson’s older sister Bonnie added 14 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc. Freshman, Kaylee Johnson got into double digits in rebounding for the first time in her career, as she led the way with 13 boards helping the Cardinal outrebound the Huskies 41-37. “Kaylee was dominant on the boards,” VanDerveer praised.

Both teams were dreadful from the free-throw line, as each team shot below 68%. Connecticut coach, Geno Auriemma, added “both teams were awful for the night, especially when nearly 60 shots were attempted”. VanDerveer also brought up the bad free throw shooting saying “it needs to get better”.

Monday night marks the first time Connecticut has lost since March 12, 2013 during the Big East Tournament. Since then, they have won two straight National Championships, which includes an undefeated season. “Games like this tonight, just go to show how damn hard it is to go undefeated,” Auriemma commented.

With Connecticut not losing a game in over a year and a half, the locker room had some mixed emotions Stewart brought up. “It was a shock. Some of them have never lost a game before,” said the All-American.

Monday marks the second time in the last nine matches, where the Cardinal have come out on top. The last time, Stanford also ended a long winning streak held by the Huskies, as on December 30, 2012, the Cardinal ended the 90-game winning streak.

Monday’s game also extends Stanford’s home winning streak to 28 games, remaining the third longest in the country.