UConn vs. Maryland final score: Huskies blow out the Terps 81-58 to advance to third straight national championship game

Maryland came into this game on a 28-game winning streak off the three-guard attack of Laurin Mincy, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, and Lexie Brown. But they weren't able to get the UConn Huskies off of their game, and lost 81-58.

Of the Terps' starting guard trio, only Brown scored in double digits for the Terps. Meanwhile, UConn's frontcourt was key to winning this game as Breanna Stewart scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Morgan Tuck scored 24 more to fuel the Huskies to their third consecutive national championship game.

In the first half, the two teams played a relatively even first few minutes. Sure, they were able to hold Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis to just three points. But in order to beat the Huskies, Maryland had to play their best game offensively AND defensively. They shot a respectable 48.4% from the field, but UConn shot 56.7% with Moriah Jefferson and Tuck combining for 24 points on 10 of 15 shooting at that time.

Even though this game was still not out of reach at the start of the second half, the Huskies went on a 9-0 run to take a 53-33 lead, which effectively closed the door on any hope of a Terrapin comeback.

Maryland may have lost this game by a big margin, but they will enter next season with most of their key players back. The Terps will lose Laurin Mincy to graduation, and she could be a WNBA Draft pick. But Walker-Kimbrough, Brown will return, as well as center Brionna Jones.

UConn will play rival Notre Dame on Tuesday in a rematch of the 2014 National Championship game. The Huskies will be favored to win, but the Irish will do what they can to pull off a major upset.

More notes:

• The Huskies only played seven players tonight. In addition to the starting lineup of Stewart, Mosqueda-Lewis, Tuck, Jefferson, and Kia Nurse, only Kiah Stokes and Gabby Williams saw game action. Meanwhile, the Terps played 11 players tonight.
• The Terps did shoot 48.4% from the field in the first as mentioned above, but their offense stagnated in the second. They only ended up shooting 40.7% overall for the game.
• Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had an ineffective game as a scorer, where she only scored four points on 1 of 8 shooting. But she dished seven assists to lead all players. I'll also add that she only committed one turnover so this was an excellent performance from her as a playmaker.