With seven minutes and change left in the first half, Georgia led UConn 23 to 10. UConn looked stunned, even corpselike. Husky fans who remembered December thought the game over.

Then Renee Montgomery hit a trey, and another trey, and another trey. Barb Turner made a free throw, and another free throw, and another free throw, and pulled down a couple of boards. UConn pulled off a 20-to-3 run, and took the lead.

The second half was simply the most suspenseful 20 minutes of basketball the tournament has offered. For a while, nobody could miss. The magnificent Tasha Humphrey made ridiculously challenging fall-away midrange shots with almost supernatural accuracy. Georgia's quick guards drew fouls and made free throws, over and over.

Humphrey, though, is the only post in Georgia's injury-depleted rotation. She entered the half with three fouls, and picked up her fourth with ten minutes to go; she chose not to contest UConn's post moves, and Barb Turner made them pay with layup after layup.

Georgia led by one point with one minute to go. Strother drained a three. Then Alexis Kendrick drained another. Georgia led by one again. Twenty seconds remained. Where would UConn go: Strother for three? Montgomery, perhaps? Turner inside, with hopes to get to the line?

The answer, incredibly: Turner, for three. The senior center-- who had made ten of 37 trey tries all year-- got the ball, gave it to Strother, got it back, and sank the game-winning shot from behind the arc, with two defenders approaching, and about one second to go. (One of those defenders hit her elbow; no foul was called.) Humphrey's three-quarter court heave then hit the rim, and UConn had won.

Turner finished with 31 points and 9 boards, her best game ever. UConn's guards finally proved that they could keep up with a running team. UConn fans finally got a signature victory more fun than the low-scoring, defense-first LSU game. And Geno got 48 hours to prepare his team for the Blue Devils.

For Georgia, senior Sherill Baker (11-12 from the line, 9 boards, 3 steals) got to show off her defensive magic one last time on a pre-draft stage. The rest of the Dawgs could only complain about home-court advantage, or about the bad early-season luck that left them with five fine guards and just one, albeit stellar, post.

Geno: "I told the kids in the locker room that if you're lucky in life, sometimes fate taps you on the shoulder. You want to be ready and we were ready."

Georgia's coach Landers: "It was the kind of game we expected, with the exception of that last shot."