UConn Wins Championship thanks to Moore, Most Outstanding Player

by UNCENSORED NEWS | April 7, 2010 at 04:34 am

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Maya Moore ended the season on Tuesday night with the 'Most Outstanding Player' award. Moore played a great season with scores that made headlines in the sports columns. During her career, Moore has played in seventeen NCAA Tournament games. "Maya Moore was the difference," VanDerveer said. "If she's on our team, we win. She really stepped up and made big plays for them. Really, she's a great player and she made big plays."

Maya Moore's junior career ended in style Tuesday night with a game-high 23 points to lead UConn to its seventh national championship and 78th straight win. Moore, who scored 34 against Baylor on Sunday, was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. Tina Charles won it last season. It was Moore's 23rd straight game in double figures and her 16th in 17 NCAA Tournament games. Charles, Stanford's Nnemkadi Ogwumike and Kayla Pederson, and Oklahoma's Danielle Robinson were also on the all-tournament team. Pedersen, a junior, had 15 points and 17 rebounds, and Ogwumike, a sophomore, followed up her 38-point performance against Oklahoma Sunday with 11 points and 13 rebounds. HIGH PRAISE: On Monday, UConn coach Geno Auriemma referred to Ogwumike as the most improved player in the country. "I really appreciate and I really admire kids who take it seriously, they take the responsibility of being a college athlete seriously," he said. "I watched her play as a freshman. And then I saw her on film as a sophomore before we played them in December. And I just thought it was a completely different player." Ogwumike, whose sister Chiney will play for Stanford next season after picking the Cardinal over UConn, seemed thrilled. "That meant a lot of me, to have an outstanding coach like him saying something like that to me," she said. "I was really happy. I like talking to him. He's a nice guy."