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 The fabulous freshman scored 24 points and the Huskies shot a blistering 60 percent from the field to beat Texas 89-55 on Tuesday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The top-seeded Huskies advanced to the Greensboro Regional semifinals on Sunday against Old Dominion.
Moore hit six of her first seven shots, including four 3-pointers en route to her first 20-point game since scoring 29 against LSU on Feb. 25.
"We just feel she's going to hit every shot," Auriemma said. "When she gets a good look and gets her feet set we don't think she's going to miss. "I don't know how to explain it. We actually get upset when she doesn't make a shot that's how confident we are."
It's the 15th straight season UConn (34-1) has advanced to the regional semifinals. Renee Montgomery added 17 points and Tina Charles had 15 for the Huskies, who routed Cornell 89-47 in the opening round.
While making the round of 16 is nothing new for Connecticut, Louisville earned its first trip to the regional semifinals in 12 tries by beating Kansas State in the other game in Bridgeport on Tuesday night.
The Cardinals will face North Carolina in New Orleans on Saturday.
"It's great history for Louisville," Cardinals coach Jeff Walz said. "There is a lot of excitement, but it's not our final goal."
Carla Cortijo scored 18 points and Earnesia Williams added 12 to lead the eighth-seeded Longhorns (22-13), who had won six of seven
-- including a 72-55 win over Minnesota in the first round. The loss was Texas' worst in the NCAA tournament surpassing a 85-60 defeat to Louisiana Tech in 1984.
Moore was everywhere on the floor, with 12 rebounds and three blocks.
"It was extremely fun," said Moore. "We just came out with a type of excitement and the transition running and gunning game that we like to do. I was feeling it and my teammates were finding me, and they went in."
Texas had no answer for her or Connecticut.
"They didn't have a weakness," Texas coach Gail Goestenkors said. "They hit the outside shot. They hit the 3s, pull-up jumpers. Their transition game was excellent. They dominated the boards and played great team basketball."
Goestenkors is one of the rare coaches to have success against Connecticut. She led Duke to a 68-67 win in Hartford on Jan. 3, 2004, ending UConn's 69-game home winning streak. Then she coached the Blue Devils past the Huskies 63-61 in overtime in the regional finals at Bridgeport in the 2006 NCAA tournament.
It was the only loss by the Huskies in their last 34 NCAA tournament games in Connecticut.
But the Huskies were at their best Tuesday night. They jumped all over Texas, hitting 12 of their first 17 shots to go up 31-13 in the first 9 minutes, almost all of it on layups or 3-pointers.
"The way we started the game in the first 10 minutes set the tone for the evening," Auriemma said.
Moore hit four 3s during that spurt and had 14 points before the midway point of the first half. The Huskies led 47-30 at the break, shooting 68 percent from the field (21-for-31).
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"Maya's just Maya," said Connecticut guard Ketia Swanier. "She was running around and getting open a lot. She was hitting open shots, she was herself today."
Just as in their first round win over Cornell, the Huskies got layup after layup. Connecticut finished with 52 points in the paint.
"Coach just wants us to take it to them and be real aggressive," Charles said. "On the board he had just to make sure to rebound and get points in the paint and I think we did that tonight."
Auriemma, not happy with the Huskies' defensive effort in the first half, got them to clamp down in the second half. Texas scored just six points in the first 10 minutes of the second period as Connecticut put the game away.
The Longhorns were trying to advance to the regional semifinals for the first time since 2004.
In the first game Tuesday night, Angel McCoughtry scored 24 and the Cardinals (26-9) beat Kansas State 80-63.
Candyce Bingham added 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Cardinals, who have won 13 of their last 15.
"We feel like nobody can beat us," Bingham said. "We feel like we're on the same page and we're just clicking."
Chauntise Wright and Patrika Barlos each added 13 points, and Barlow had six assists.
Ashley Sweat had 16 points and reserve Kelsey Nelson added 12 to lead Kansas State (22-10), which was playing its second game without injured leading scorer Kimberly Dietz.
Nelson, a virtual unknown before the tournament, tried to fill the void. The junior, who scored 23 points all season, had 20 points off the bench to help the Wildcats beat Chattanooga in the first round.
This is Louisville's fourth consecutive trip to the tournament. The Cardinals lost in the first round in 2005 and again in 2006, and bowed out in the second round last year, losing to Arizona State 67-56.
[Associated Press; By DOUG FEINBERG]
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