The last time a team came into the Maravich Center in Baton Rouge, La. and beat the No. 7 LSU women's basketball team was in Feb. 2004.
Or so was the case until Saturday, when the No. 5 UConn Huskies battled back in the final seconds to pull out a dramatic 72-71 win to snap the Tigers' 43-game home winning streak.
UConn sophomore Renee Montgomery drained two shots from beyond the arc in the final two minutes, including one with 6.7 seconds remaining on the clock, handing the Huskies a 72-69 lead going into the final possession.
LSU freshman Porsha Phillips responded with a buzzer-beating three of her own - or at least that's what the entire Maravich Center and LSU bench thought. After examining the shot on replay, the referees ruled that Phillips' foot was on the line, making her shot worth only two points, and not the three necessary to tie the game, silencing the LSU crowd.
UConn had much to celebrate, however, as it improved to 22-2 with the win, good enough for a No. 5 ranking from both the AP and USA Today polls. With a perfect conference record of 11-0, UConn stands atop the Big East, while No. 17 Louisville follows at a distant second with an 8-3 conference mark.
The Huskies and the Tigers were not the only two teams affected by buzzer shots during one of the most intense weeks of the regular season. Big Ten rivals No. 16 Purdue and No. 24 Michigan State also competed in a game in which a buzzer-beating three decided the outcome. With the Spartans paying a visit to Boilermaker territory on Sunday, the standings in the Big Ten were on the line.
Going into the game in third place, the Spartans needed a win to keep their chances of a top conference finish intact. With 20 Boilermaker turnovers and 28 percent shooting in the second half, Purdue was unable to pull out the win. Michigan State sophomore Mia Johnson ended the game by sinking a three pointer with 1.3 seconds remaining to bring the score to 54-52 in the Spartans' favor.
The win moved Michigan State into a tie for second place with the Boilermakers, as both teams own a 10-2 conference record. Both the Spartans and the Boilermakers are now chasing Ohio State, who holds an untarnished 12-0 Big Ten record with four conference games remaining - one against a visiting Michigan State squad early next week.
Just as in the case of Michigan State and Purdue, the rivalry week has stirred the standings in another conference. With then-No. 19 Texas A&M facing off against then-No. 9 Oklahoma, the lead of the Big 12 conference belonged to the Sooners. Aggie sophomore Takia Starks and junior A'Quonesia Franklin each had 25 points to lead their team in the upset over the visiting Sooners. With the loss, the Sooners dropped 18-4 on the season, and down to No. 14 in the latest national poll, as the Aggies moved up to No. 13.
With the season winding down and a bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line, teams will now be focusing on conference play and their conference tournaments. With regular season schedules winding down, the conference tournaments should be full of more upsets, tight games and buzzer-beaters.
