UConn women rally past Hoyas in Sweet 16

PHILADELPHIA -- Lorin Dixon rarely has had a chance to be the difference-maker in her distinguished career.

She was a hard-working point guard at Christ the King in Queens, teamed with Tina Charles, one of the best high school players in city history, and she followed Charles, now in the WNBA, to Connecticut. Maya Moore has been the star for the Huskies; Dixon settled into a role as a sixth woman on a six- or seven-woman team, one that has had a run for the record book in her time there.

But the 5-4 sparkplug still can make a difference, as she did Sunday in a Sweet 16 tug-of-war with Georgetown in which UConn erased a seven-point deficit in a 68-63 victory.

The Hoyas rained down three-pointers and fought for rebounds in building a 53-46 lead with 8:30 to play, frustrating Moore and 6-5 freshman Stefanie Dolson inside.

But Dixon, inserted into the game with 13:17 to go, and the Huskies turned Georgetown inside-out with a smaller, quicker defense, sparking a 17-2 run that carried top-seeded UConn (35-1) to a berth in the regional final Tuesday.

Moore finished with 23 points and North Babylon's Bria Hartley had 17, but Hartley had trouble at both ends of the floor with the Hoyas' physical play. Dixon, who had four points, four assists and four steals, was able to alleviate some of that pressure by running the point.

"Bria just doesn't have the experience to extend, defensively or offensively," Huskies coach Geno Auriemma said. "What Lorin did for us today was extremely important."

Especially as Georgetown (24-11) shot 5-for-14 from three-point range to maintain its lead for much of the first half. Monica McNutt had 17 points and shot 5-for-9 on three-pointers, and Tia Magee had 12 points and 13 rebounds while working mostly against Dolson.

Star sophomore Sugar Rodgers finished with 11 points and 3-for-17 shooting, but Georgetown kept hanging in until Dixon and UConn's move to a 2-3 zone kept a lid on three-point shots and closed off lanes for rebounds. "We're not a zone team. We're too small to play zone," Auriemma said. "We're not very bright. We don't change defenses a lot. This particular time, it was the right thing to do."

Rodgers had a chance to pull the Hoyas within a point in the final 20 seconds, but her three-pointer rolled around and out. She had 26 and 34 points in Georgetown's previous two tournament wins as the Hoyas reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1993.

"We just couldn't get a shot to fall," Magee said. "And they just turned it on."

McNutt added: "We're past moral victories. We should be in the Elite Eight."

But it's the Huskies who closed it out in their quest for a third straight title.

Moore has at least one more game to try to reach 3,000 points -- she's at 2,972 -- and Dixon, who spoke after Sunday's game of graduate school next year, has another chance to provide a spark.

"We just didn't want our careers to end today," Dixon said.

They've accomplished a lot in their time with UConn, in very different ways. Sunday was a reminder that it doesn't have to be the star who gets these Huskies going.