DURHAM, N.C. — Another undefeated start to a season for No. 2 Duke. Another high-profile meeting with Connecticut. Another lopsided loss.
DURHAM, N.C. — Another undefeated start to a season for No. 2 Duke. Another high-profile meeting with Connecticut. Another lopsided loss.
The top-ranked Huskies spoiled yet another of the Blue Devils’ perfect starts by blowing them out, the latest coming Tuesday night in an 83-61 rout.
Chelsea Gray had 13 points and Haley Peters finished with 11 for Duke (10-1).
The Blue Devils went 8½ minutes between baskets while missing 12 shots in a row during the pivotal stretch that brought the end of their 24-game winning streak at Cameron Indoor Stadium — a run that dated to UConn’s last visit in 2011.
“There’s a lot of energy in the building, but we just didn’t maintain it for ourselves with each other,” Peters said, “and we didn’t use it in the right way all the time.”
The Huskies, the only visitors to beat Duke on its home floor since 2008, now have done it three times since anybody else has found a way to do it once.
UConn also spoiled an undefeated start by the Blue Devils with a rout for the third time in four seasons.
“We didn’t do what we needed to do defensively,” coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “We didn’t rebound the way we need to rebound. And we showed little patience on offense at critical times.”
UConn got a career-high seven 3-pointers from Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis in her first game back from injury. Breanna Stewart had 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies (11-0), and Stefanie Dolson had 14 points and Bria Hartley finished with 13.
Stewart “showed why she’s the best player in the country, and obviously (Mosqueda-Lewis) enjoyed her first game back,” McCallie said. “And we didn’t help matters much.”
UConn shot 49 percent and pushed its lead well into the 20s, turning the 52nd meeting of Nos. 1 and 2 into the latest blowout in this series.
“I think I would be less than honest if I said I thought we could come in here and win by 20,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “Simply because we haven’t played in (12 days). We weren’t sure what we were going to get from (Mosqueda-Lewis and Morgan Tuck). And I thought Duke being at home and they’ve got a bunch of upperclassmen … it would be a little bit different.”
It wasn’t.
UConn won its seventh straight in the series — the previous six were decided by an average of nearly 30 points.
Stewart did much of the early damage in her first appearance in front of the Cameron Crazies — or at least what was left of them, with the Duke students on winter break. She was four points shy of the career high she matched last month against Oregon.