Strother powers UConn past W. Virginia, 50-44

The Mountaineers enjoyed a fine postseason run.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Ann Strother scored nine of her 20 points in the final seven minutes to lead No. 9 Connecticut to a 50-44 win Tuesday night over West Virginia in the Big East Conference championship, ending the Mountaineers' surprising postseason run.
The 12th-seeded Mountaineers ended their regular season with an eight-game losing streak and were the lowest seed to make the final.
They upset Louisville, DePaul and top-seeded Rutgers in their remarkable march to the final and did it without leading scorer Meg Bulger, lost in January to a season-ending knee injury.
Bulger had been on the bench throughout the tournament, but was scheduled for surgery this morning and left for home Tuesday morning.
Freshman Renee Montgomery finished with 11 points for the Huskies and Barbara Turner played a solid inside game with 10 rebounds.
Scrappy challengers
The scrappy Mountaineers made Huskies (29-4) work hard for their 13th tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament but were eventually done in by poor shooting, turnovers down the stretch and Strother, the tournament's most outstanding player.
It was the lowest score to win the title in the tournament's 23-year history.
Britney Davis-White led West Virginia with 12 points. Olayinka Sanni finished with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Davis-White's jumper with 6:54 left got the Mountaineers to within one at 34-33. But Strother scored all the points in a 9-2 run. The cushion didn't last long, though.
Davis-White and Sanni combined for the next six points to get within two and it was clear to the 10,126 fans at the Hartford Civic Center that the Mountaineers were not about to go away.
Abandoning the zone defense that had stymied opponents throughout the tournament, the Mountaineers concentrated on Strother, double- and triple-teaming her.
With her team clinging to a four-point lead with 40 seconds left, Strother battled out of triple-team and found a wide-open Willnett Crocket on a backdoor cut.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.