Despite loss, UConn women still have incredible streak going

NEW YORK (AP) - Many of UConn’s incredible regular-season streaks are over after Thursday night’s loss at Baylor.

Still, the Huskies have one left that is among the most remarkable in sports. They haven’t had a losing streak in 25 years.

That’s right, UConn has gone 938 consecutive games without back-to-back defeats. The Huskies kept that run going with a 20-point win over Houston on Sunday. Since the start of the 1993-94 season, they are 59-0 following a loss.

UConn’s NCAA record of 126 straight regular-season wins went by the wayside. As did the school’s 55-game winning streak in true road games. Baylor’s victory was the first game UConn lost in regulation since 2013 when the Lady Bears also beat them. Their only regular-season defeat since then was 88-86 in overtime at Stanford on Nov. 14, 2014.

“What is disappointing for me, not that we lost. How long did you think you were going to win every game in the regular season, 10 years?” coach Geno Auriemma said after the 68-57 defeat on Thursday. “So I’m not surprised that we lost, but it was disappointing that we struggled so much on the offensive end.”

Here are some other things that happened in women’s college basketball this week:

STRONG STARTS: Ninth-ranked N.C. State is off to the best start in school history, winning its first 15 games, including Sunday’s victory over Boston College. The victory surpassed the 1999-2000 squad that won its first 14 games under late Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow.

It was the team’s first game playing without leading scorer Grace Hunter, who will be sidelined for the rest of the season with a right knee injury. The Wolfpack announced on Twitter just before tipoff she tore her ACL in a victory over Duke on Thursday.

“It’s really going to be tough - leading scorer, second-leading rebounder, second in assists. We lost a great player,” N.C. State coach Wes Moore said. “All you can do is get back to work. I’m proud of the way they rebounded, especially after a quick turnaround.”

The Wolfpack aren’t the only ones playing well to start the season. Ohio has won its first 12 games - the best start in program history. It also matches the longest winning streak at the school under coach Bob Boldon. N.C. State and Ohio are joined by Louisville as the only unbeaten teams in Division I.

“These are all character-building opportunities,” Boldon said after an overtime win against Buffalo on Saturday. “I thought our kids fought some adversity. I don’t think anyone went into halftime feeling good about their offensive game, so to come out in the second half and put up 46 plus the eight in overtime, I think that shows a little bit of mental toughness and desire to win games.”

BRAGGING RIGHTS: South Dakota beat rival South Dakota State 105-98 in double overtime on Sunday. Both teams are having strong seasons, with the Coyotes at 14-3 and the Jackrabbits with 10 wins.

Ciara Duffy scored a career-high 28 points, and the junior went over 1,000 for her career.

“That was just a great college basketball game and certainly it’s easier to say on our end because we came out on top,” South Dakota coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “The atmosphere for a women’s basketball game with the fans, the energy that was in the arena and the way that both teams battled back from different runs during the course of the game speaks volumes to the efforts of our ladies and the South Dakota State players.”

South Dakota has wins over Missouri, Iowa State and Green Bay to go along with the win over its archrival.

The Jackrabbits have lost close games to Baylor and Oregon.

MILESTONE WIN: Boise State coach Gordy Presnell picked up his 650th career victory Saturday in a 69-66 win over San Diego State. He’s the 16th active Division I coach to reach that mark. He is 650-296 in his 32 seasons as a head coach and has 254 of those victories at Boise State. He also had 396 wins at Seattle Pacific, where he coached from 1987-2005. Three of his former assistants are currently Division I head coaches: JR Payne (Colorado), Lynne Roberts (Utah) and Jamie Craighead (San Jose State).

TIP-INS: For the first time in school history, Duke opened its ACC slate against two top-10 and undefeated teams, as the Blue Devils faced ninth-ranked NC State and third-ranked Louisville. The Blue Devils went 0-2, marking the third time since 1992-93 they’ve lost their first two conference games. … Baylor’s win marked the first time coach Kim Mulkey had knocked off a No. 1 team. It was also only the fourth time in Big 12 history that a team from that conference has beaten a top-ranked team. … Kansas State senior guard Kayla Goth became the 41st player in school history to score 1,000 career points, as she surpassed the mark on a 3-pointer with 4:28 remaining in the first quarter against Oklahoma on Saturday night. Goth entered the game with 999 points and 396 assists. She finished the game with 16 points and five assists. She is the fourth player in the 51 years of K-State women’s basketball to record 1,000 or more points and 400 or more assists. Since the start of the 2017-18 season (48 games), Goth has handed out 313 assists, which is 78 percent of her career total. She has also scored 768 points in that span, 75.7 percent of her career total.

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