SAN ANTONIO – The start was a shocker.

Of all the mind-blowing figures that have gone the U. Connecticut Huskies’ way over their two-year run at perfection – the streak, the double-digit victory margin run that’s just as long, the field goal defense – it was a stat working against them, for once, that told the story.

UConn took a 17 percent shooting clip into the locker room.

Stanford led Sunday’s national final 20-12 at the break as a result, with the Huskies’ output marking a new low for a championship game participant in a single half.
Other developments were just as out of place.  Maya Moore’s red-hot tourney took a turn for the glacial.   Tina Charles’ touches were limited early, and her only contribution in the opening period was a 17-foot jumper – far from her domain in the paint.

The Cardinal didn’t shoot much better in the first, finishing at just under 26 percent from the field, but it was plenty with UConn struggling.

The defending champs were indeed absorbing the haymaker that was necessary to knock them from their perch. But like champions, the Huskies took the shock of the first half on the chin and fought back, outscoring the Cardinal 41-27 in the second to win their 39th game 53-47.

It wasn’t a perfect finish, but for the second year in a row and the fourth time in program history, the UConn Huskies are perfect.

National Championship banner number seven, as it was destined to be since last April in St. Louis, will hang in Storrs.

“To be honest with you, and you know me, it was one of the few times I was speechless,” said coach Geno Auriemma, who took a slow, puzzled stroll into the tunnel at the break, well behind his team.  “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life and in all my years at Connecticut.  We were so out of it and we just talked about slowing everything down, getting a little better movement, get some better screening, being a little more patient and then Maya just made some huge shots.”

For a group so unfamiliar with playing from behind, panic would have been an understandable response for the Huskies.  But the players never felt it.

“Second half, you can’t really have any fear, any doubts,” Moore said.  “We all recognized that we weren’t ourselves.  We just had to leave that in the locker room and that’s what we did.”

The Huskies opened the second half on a 17-2 run that sealed the win.  Moore was named the tournament’s most outstanding player, recovering from a 2-for-8 shooting start to record a game-high 23 points and a team-best 11 boards.  She gave the Huskies their first lead since early in the first with a 3-pointer at 14:27 in the second, amid a stretch in which she scored seven straight points.   UConn didn’t trail following the All-American’s outburst.

“Maya is obviously the best player that you can think of when you need points, so when she’s making shots, the rest of the team feels like, ‘wow, we can accomplish anything,’” Auriemma said.

In six tournament games, Moore averaged 24 points and 8.3 rebounds while shooting 52 percent from the field and 63 percent from three.

Charles, who was named the 2010 Naismith National Player of the Year on Monday, finished a point shy of a double-double and matched Moore’s rebound total of 11.  Once the shots started falling for her teammates, Charles found her stroke, netting a couple more long jumpers and out-muscling a visibly injured Jayne Appel.  She also swatted six shots, helping to set up a handful of transition buckets during the Huskies’ second half surge.

The Cardinal (36-2) staged a late rally to cut what was a 16-point deficit down to seven when Kayla Pederson (team-high 15 points, 17 rebounds) banked home a three with 1:14 to go.  UConn’s defense, and a lack of clutch shooting, prevented the Cardinal from pulling off the upset.

“I think we wasted a lot of opportunities in both halves,” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.  “Maya Moore was the difference, you know?  If she’s on our team, we win.  She really stepped up and made big plays for [UConn].”

The Cardinal appeared in the Final Four for the third straight season, making the national final twice.  The Huskies are the first women’s basketball team to put together back-to-back undefeated campaigns and enter the 2010-11 season with their legendary win streak at 78 games, 10 shy of John Wooden and UCLA’s 88-game record.