(Associated Press)HARTFORD, CONN. — Natalie Achonwa’s layup with 1.8 seconds left lifted No. 2 Notre Dame to its first Big East tournament championship with a 61-59 victory over third-ranked Connecticut on Tuesday night.
Skylar Diggins stole an errant pass from Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis with 8 seconds left, and after dribbling through a few defenders, found Guelph’s Achonwa for the uncontested lay-in.
Kelly Faris then heaved a desperation attempt from 65 feet that fell harmlessly off the backboard, setting off a wild celebration for the Irish, who have won 26 straight games.
The Fighting Irish players, wearing championship hats and T-shirts, set up a dance line to celebrate and did an Irish jig in front of the school band.
Notre Dame (31-1) had been in the title game six previous times, including the last two, and lost to the Huskies in each one.
A former Centennial CVI student, Achonwa joined the Fighting Irish in 2010. Now a junior, she was promoted to the starting lineup this season after spending her first two year’s as the Irish’s first person off the bench. Achonwa also represented Team Canada in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, as the second-youngest player to play in an Olympic women’s basketball tournament, at 19.
Achonwa scored 11 to go with nine rebounds to help Notre Dame beat Louisville 83-59 on Monday night in the semifinals. Achonwa shot 3-for-6 for six points in the final.
The Irish weren’t going to be denied in their final chance to win an elusive Big East championship. Earlier in the day, Notre Dame announced it would be joining the ACC starting next season — a year earlier than expected.
Kayla McBride, named the tournament’s most outstanding player, scored 23 points to lead the Irish. Jewell Loyd finished with 16 and Diggins had 12.
Stefanie Dolson scored 18 points and Breanna Stewart had 16 for UConn (29-4), which had won the last five Big East tournament titles but fell to Notre Dame for the third time this season.
The Huskies trailed 59-53 with 2:55 left before tying it at 59.
They had a chance to take the lead but Faris missed a layup. She got her own rebound and after calling a timeout, the Huskies had a chance before Mosqueda-Lewis got caught in the corner and threw the ball away to Diggins, setting up the finish.
The Irish have dominated the series recently with seven victories in the last eight meetings. No team has ever dominated the Huskies like that since UConn won its first national championship in 1995.
The only UConn victory came in the conference title game last season, but the Huskies couldn’t pull off a third straight win over Notre Dame in the tournament championship.
The loss ended a run of 19 straight seasons that Connecticut had won either the regular season or post-season conference title.
These two teams could potentially meet for a fourth time in the NCAA tournament. It would be the third straight season that they would meet four times in one year.
They met eight days earlier and the Irish came away with a triple-overtime victory that clinched them their second straight conference regular-season title.
This one — while it didn’t go three overtimes — was thrilling nonetheless. A fitting finale for a conference that has been arguably the best in women’s basketball over the past decade. This was the last game under its current configuration as the basketball schools will break away from the football schools next season. That new basketball conference will keep the Big East name.
“It was a great partnership that produced some memorable moments in a lot of sports. We are very sorry to see the Big East that we knew and grew up in not exist anymore,” Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said before the game.
Notre Dame appeared to put this game away early. McBride keyed Notre Dame on a 20-4 run for a 20-8 lead. She had nine points during the burst, barely moving the net on some of her jumpers. The Huskies tried to rally in front of a friendly crowd of 9,000 who were clearly backing UConn despite the team wearing its blue road uniforms.
UConn pulled to 24-22 on a putback by Dolson with 4:52 left in the half. Then it was Loyd’s time to shine. The conference’s freshman of the year scored seven points during an 11-0 run as the Irish opened up a 35-22 advantage. They led 35-26 at the half.
Notre Dame expanded its lead to 39-28 before UConn finally got going. Stewart scored the final four points of an 11-0 run to tie it midway through the second half. The teams traded baskets over the next 6 minutes with neither able to build any sort of lead.
Diggins, the two-time reigning Big East player of the year, finally gave Notre Dame a four-point lead with a floater in the lane with 5:22 left to set up the frantic finish.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma had inserted Stewart into the lineup for the first time since the middle of December. Stewart had averaged just 7.5 points against the Irish this season in the two previous meetings, making just six of her 24 shots.
She had played very well in the first two games of the Big East tournament, and continued it against the Irish.
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