The teams are tied for the conference lead at 11-1 after the Irish were upset by West Virginia on Sunday.
“The No. 1 goal always, every year is to win the regular season championship. … In order for us to do that, we have to win every game,’’ Auriemma said. “So, we’ve kind of been in a playoff mode every game since we played at South Bend. So, that doesn’t change anything for us.’’
The Huskies never trailed on their way to moving to 10-0 all-time in the series, which had become an annual tradition around Valentine’s Day but is set to end after this meeting.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Stefanie Dolson contributed 10 points apiece, and Connecticut appeared ready to run away with it in the first 7 minutes before withstanding a series of rallies by Oklahoma (16-8).
“We kept our heads,’’ Hayes said. “We’d just come down, just run our stuff, not let them make us go too fast and I think that’s what helped us out.’’
Whitney Hand scored 18 points while playing 40 minutes but she was the only one of the Sooners who could score with regularity against the nation’s top defense.
“It’s never OK — never OK — to lose on your home floor but I am proud of the growth that I saw,’’ coach Sherri Coale said. “We found some passion and we found some fighters.’’
Aaryn Ellenberg, once the Sooners’ most dangerous scorer, continued a prolonged slump by missing eight of her first nine shots. She has shot 16 for 75 (21 percent) over the last seven games — a stretch that has included two games against top-ranked Baylor and this one against an even more stingy defense.
The Huskies came in allowing opponents to shoot only 29.6 percent and average 44.4 points.
Oklahoma exceeded both of those marks but still made only 34.5 percent and never could dig all the way out of an early 17-point deficit. The Sooners were 3 for 14 from 3-point range and are 24 for 105 (23 percent) over the same seven-game stretch.
“We’ve got to get that 3 element back in our offense. We have to,’’ Coale said. “It’s such a piece of our identity.’’
