2011-12 ND Women's Basketball: Game 33
BIG EAST Conference Championship -- Final
#3/3 [#1 seed] Notre Dame Fighting Irish (30-2 / 15-1 BIG EAST) vs. #4/4 [#3 seed] Connecticut Huskies (28-4 / 13-3 BIG EAST)
DATE: March 6, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m. ET
AT: Hartford, Conn. - XL Center (16,294)
SERIES: UCONN leads 28-7
1ST MTG: UCONN 87-64 (1/18/96)
LAST MTG: ND 72-59 (2/27/12)
TV: ESPN / WatchESPN (live) (Beth Mowins, p-b-p / Brooke Weisbrod, color / Rebecca Lobo and Allison Williams, sideline)
RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) / UND.com (live) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p)
LIVE STATS: UND.com / bigeast.org
TWITTER: @ndwbbsid/@UND_com
Storylines
Notre Dame is seeking its first conference tournament championship since 1994, when it won the last of five Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now Horizon League) postseason crowns.
The Fighting Irish are facing their 13th ranked opponent of the season (11-1 record; 7-1 away from home), and their seventh top-10 foe (5-1 record; 2-1 away from home).
#3 Fighting Irish To Meet #4 Connecticut In BIG EAST Title Game
For the sixth time, No. 3 Notre Dame will take the court in search of BIG EAST Championship hardware, and for the sixth time, No. 4 Connecticut will provide the opposition, as the Fighting Irish and Huskies square off for the third time this season (and second in eight days) in the BIG EAST Championship title game at 7 p.m. (ET) Tuesday from the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. The game will be televised to a national cable audience by ESPN, and it also can be viewed live on-line through WatchESPN (formerly known as ESPN3).
Notre Dame (30-2) will be making its second consecutive appearance in the conference final after a wire-to-wire 73-45 victory over No. 25 West Virginia on Monday night at the XL Center. The Fighting Irish jumped out to a 20-4 lead and never looked back while eliminating the one BIG EAST team that it lost to during the regular season.
Senior guard/tri-captain Natalie Novosel led four Notre Dame players in double figures with 18 points and became the fourth player in tournament history to go 4-for-4 from the three-point line. Sophomore guard Kayla McBride added 15 points, while fifth-year seniors/tri-captains Devereaux Peters (11 points) and Brittany Mallory (10 points) rounded out the Fighting Irish double-digit quartet.
Rankings
Notre Dame is ranked No. 3 in this week's Associated Press poll and was ranked No. 3 in last week's ESPN/USA Today poll (new poll to be released Tuesday afternoon).
Connecticut is ranked No. 4 in this week's Associated Press poll and was ranked No. 4 in last week's ESPN/USA Today poll.
The Notre Dame-Connecticut Series
Notre Dame and Connecticut will be playing for the 36th time on Tuesday night, with the Huskies holding a 28-7 edge in the all-time series, including a 17-2 advantage in the state of Connecticut (7-1 in Hartford). The teams also will be squaring off for the third time this season, and the 10th time in the past three years, with the Huskies winning the first six and the Fighting Irish taking the past three.
Tuesday will represent the sixth time Notre Dame and Connecticut have played with the BIG EAST Championship trophy on the line. The Huskies have won each of the five prior matchups in the conference title game -- 1996 (71-54), 1997 (86-77), 1999 (96-75), 2001 (78-76) and 2011 (73-64).