U-Conn. Connecticut's Sue Bird finished 5 of 7 from behind the three-point line. (AP)

By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 1, 2000; Page D1

PHILADELPHIA, March 31 – Nothing went according to plan except the final score. The top-ranked Connecticut Huskies played out of character and out of form, but still managed to manhandle the Penn State Lady Lions in tonight's women's NCAA tournament national semifinal game.

Connecticut earned a convincing 89-67 victory at First Union Center and a long-anticipated matchup with longtime rival Tennessee in Sunday's final.

The Huskies won although one of their top players, senior Shea Ralph, did not score for the first 29 minutes. They won despite sloppy play in the first half. And Connecticut relied on scoring salvation not from Ralph or fellow all-American Svetlana Abrosimova, but rather from point guard Sue Bird, an unlikely star who hit five three-point shots and finished with a game-high 19 points.

Different combination, customary result.

"I don't know what to say about Sue Bird," Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma said. "She hasn't gotten any awards this year. Nobody thinks of her as the top point guard in the country. . . . I wouldn't have taken any other point guard playing anywhere in America over Sue Bird. Without her, there's no way we would be here."

When Bird wasn't propelling Connecticut, reserve forward Asjha Jones was keeping pace, scoring 16 points. Connecticut thus overcame a terrible first-half of shooting and inspired play by Penn State's players, who hoped to take longtime Coach Rene Portland to her first national championship game.

In her 20 years with Penn State, Portland had never been to a Final Four before this weekend, let alone a national championship game.

Instead, Auriemma will get the chance to earn his second national title against Tennessee, which defeated Rutgers, 64-54, in tonight's earlier semifinal. The Lady Vols handed the Huskies their only loss this season.

"Everybody has been waiting for this game," Ralph said. "If you ask anybody who watches college basketball, they probably would have said or put down in their bracket that U-Conn. and Tennessee would have met in the final game. It's definitely fate. It's going to be a big battle.

For Connecticut, it's been a battle for the last three years. Last year's Huskies team was upset in the round of 16 by Iowa State. The previous two squads lost in the regional finals.

Since then, the Huskies have been on a mission for redemption. Connecticut has barely stumbled throughout the tournament – excepting a poor-shooting first period tonight – and during a season in which its average margin of victory has been over 30 points.

After a sloppy first half, both offenses exploded in a run-and-gun start to the second. Bird collected points from the outside the way she usually does assists, and a variety of Lady Lions – including Andrea Garner (19 points) and Lisa Shepherd (15) – kept pace. Penn State turned a nine-point first-half deficit into just a four-point disadvantage five minutes into the second period.

But Connecticut got just as hot.

It was then that Ralph, who averages more than 14 points a game, finally got involved. Considered the team's biggest spark, Ralph was held scoreless until nearly midway through the second half. She finally sank a three-pointer to extend Connecticut's second-half lead to 60-53 with just under 11 minutes remaining.

What had been a competitive game turned into a rout.

Perhaps fired up by Ralph's involvement, Connecticut took control and ran away with the game. The Huskies seemed to have command for good when Abrosimova gathered in a pass in midair from Kennitra Johnson and, before landing, fired to a wide-open Swin Cash under the basket.

Cash converted the fast-break points. Connecticut had a 10-point lead with just over seven minutes remaining and the game was all but over.

"The last seven minutes, they just pulled away," Portland said. "We grabbed the momentum the first five minutes of the second half to pull within four, but then we matched buckets and, in the end, our defense broke down immensely."

Most of the white-and-blue-clad fans in the crowd of 20,060 at the cheered heartily during player introductions for the white-and-blue of nearby Penn State (30-5) rather than the white-and-blue Huskies – who nonetheless brought a sizable fan following from Storrs, Conn.

Connecticut (35-1) did its best to quiet the Penn State fans by taking an early lead despite sloppy play. The Huskies missed a variety of easy shots and gimme layups, leaving Auriemma pacing the sidelines at times and resulting in a 37.8 percent success rate from the field in the first half.

Abrosimova made only 3 of 9 in the opening period – she finished 4 of 12 – and missed three layups, including one off of a snazzy fast break on the opening tip.

Perhaps the night's most disappointing performance came from Penn State's star point guard Helen Darling. She handed out nine assists but missed all six shots she attempted and did not score.

"We've always said that when somebody punches us, we have to punch back," Ralph said. "I thought tonight we did a wonderful job of that."