UConn dominates Purdue to reach Sweet 16
STORRS, Conn. -- The crowd stood as the final 40 seconds ticked away, and when the win was recorded, they chanted "Maya! Maya! Maya!" in appreciation of their star forward.
All-American Maya Moore scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as she and fellow senior Lorin Dixon closed out their UConn careers at home in style Tuesday night with a 64-40 rout of No. 9 seed Purdue to advance to Sunday's Sweet 16 in Philadelphia.
The top-seeded Huskies (34-1), who earned their 18th straight Sweet 16 appearance, will face No. 5 Georgetown.
"I felt a little awkward," Moore said with a smile about the outpouring of love. "I usually don't like that individual attention because I play a team sport . . . I appreciate it. The fans have been awesome."
Moore and Dixon, a Springfield Gardens native, were part of UConn's first senior class to win every home game for four years. They went 40-0 at Gampel Pavilion and 41-0 at Hartford's XL Center.
Moore played in the past 80 of the Huskies' record 82-game home winning streak. Although the 5-4 Dixon didn't score, she had four rebounds, three assists and capped her night with an emphatic block that she and the UConn faithful will remember for some time.
With 2:20 to go, Purdue's Courtney Moses had her eyes fixed on scoring a fast-break layup. But the diminutive Dixon swatted the ball out of the point guard's hands, causing it to bounce off Moses and out of bounds.
"I know I can jump high, so I tend to like guards that try to take me one on one," said Dixon, who along with Moore was subbed out immediately after that play, with UConn up 62-35.
"As she was coming down, all I said was, 'Don't let her score, don't give her no easy shots.' And when she went up with it, I was like, 'All right, Lorin, you know you can jump high enough to get this.' "
The arena went crazy as the two seniors walked off the court together. They're 148-3 overall in their careers.
"That's the play I'll remember," Moore said. "After that play I said, 'Lorin Dixon, that was your last play in Gampel. Congratulations.' "
Dixon had tried not to get emotional as she stood on the sideline, but the harder she fought the tears, the more they welled up. "I can't believe four years went by so fast," she said.
While Moore (5-for-14) struggled from the field, Tiffany Hayes put on a show as if it were her curtain call. The UConn junior scored a game-high 23 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists. Stephanie Dolson chipped in 11 points and North Babylon's Bria Hartley added 10 for the Huskies.
"They've been through so much in this program, they've created so much history here," Hartley, a freshman, said of the seniors. "So we wanted to make sure that we went out and we played really well."
Drey Mingo, who nearly died in November after contracting meningitis, strep throat and mononucleosis, led the Boilermakers with nine points.
UConn, which used a 19-3 run to take a 28-13 halftime lead, outrebounded the Boilermakers 55-30. Purdue shot only 20 percent (5-for-25) from the floor in the first half and finished 14-for-54.
