I admit it, when UConn set the NCAA record for games won with an 89th straight win over Florida State last week, I wondered if they’d ever lose.

But then again, I’m prone to extreme, magical thinking. I wondered if Geno Auriemma could just keep stacking his roster with awesome, unstoppable players who could beat anyone on any NCAA women’s team. I wondered why any superstar high school basketball player would consider another school. Also I wondered if there was a conspiracy, but that’s another story.

None of that was true. After winning their 90th straight game at Pacific last week, the Huskies lost to the Stanford Cardinal tonight, and not by a basket or a few. The last team to beat them — in the playoffs on April 6, 2008 — did it again, 71-59, in their 52nd straight home win.

“I’m just happy for our team,” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. “The streak is something that they did. We’re about Stanford and what we want to do.”

Stanford is a big team and UConn star Maya Moore was held pointless until almost 17 minutes into the game. Stanford senior guard Jeanette Pohlen scored a career-high 31 points, while Moore eked out 15. The Huskies never led, which is amazing, really, considering that, well, they’ve won 90 games, which assumes they’ve lead at least once in all of them, if I understand numbers correctly.

Auriemma took a lot of heat between wins 88 and 89 for calling out the media and fans for underestimating women’s basketball.

“Because we’re breaking a men’s record, we’ve got a lot of people paying attention,” Auriemma said. “If we were breaking a women’s record, everybody would go, ‘Aren’t those girls nice, let’s give them two paragraphs in USA Today, you know, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and then let’s send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.’”

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer

Tonight he seemed shocked by the loss, which I guess is pretty normal if you haven’t lost at something for two-and-a-half years and then all of a sudden you do. I guess you’d feel like you pretty much had the winning thing down by then.

“At some point reality had to set in, and today reality set in. I’m not destroyed about it…Winning that many games in a row, it’s unheard of. I thought we let it get away from us. I think the atmosphere and what was going on and when Maya couldn’t get going early. I think it affected the rest of our guys. We just didn’t play like ourselves. Give credit to Stanford. I think they played an unbelievably good game.”

Yes, they did. Congratulations to Stanford for a big win, and to UConn for a record-setting streak that had to end — as they do — sometime.

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This post is related to an ongoing story:

• Stanford Beats UConn, Ends Win Streak