Maya Moore scored 18 points on Saturday, and Connecticut's energized defense allowed only seven points in the first half as the top-ranked Huskies stayed perfect with a 65-34 victory over Cincinnati.
UConn (19-0, 5-0 Big East) provided a fitting encore to its biggest win of the season. The Huskies visited second-ranked North Carolina on Monday and rolled to a 30-point victory, leaving little doubt who's the nation's best at the moment.
Five days later, the overriding question was whether the Huskies would be still savoring that emphatic win.
The answer: An emphatic no.
All it took was a few minutes for UConn to show that it wasn't going to ease up. The Huskies followed their attention-getting win at Carolina with an attention-grabbing 39-7 first half against Cincinnati (13-6, 3-3), which could barely get off a shot.
It matched the second-fewest points that the Huskies have allowed in a first half. Providence College scored only in the first half of UConn's 71-24 win on Feb. 5, 2005, for the school record. Cincinnati nearly was on pace to break the futility mark before Kahla Roudebush hit a 3 with 23 seconds left in the half.
Savannah State holds the NCAA record for fewest points in any half, falling behind 54-3 against Florida State on Nov. 23, 2003.
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Tina Charles added 13 points for UConn, and Renee Montgomery had 11 points and three steals. Val Schuster had 11 for Cincinnati.
The first 20 minutes were a blur for the Bearcats, who were 3-for-28 from the field and went nearly 13 minutes without a point. Jill Stephens made their first two baskets, jumpers at 18:08 and 5:18. UConn's quick, matchup zone had six steals and forced 11 turnovers in the half.
At one point, Cincinnati was shooting 4.8 percent from the field.
Moore got UConn rolling by scoring 14 of its first 20 points. She had 16 in the half, only three below her season average for a game. Connecticut substituted freely in the second half.
The win left UConn 19-0 for the second straight season. The Huskies won their first 21 games last season, a streak that ended with a 73-71 loss to Rutgers on Feb. 5. UConn finished 36-2, losing to Stanford in the Final Four. The Huskies have won 27 straight regular-season games since the loss to Rutgers.
