NEW ORLEANS – Geno Auriemma and Connecticut are back on top. With freshman Breanna Stewart leading the way, it might be a while before they relinquish that spot.

Stewart scored 18 of her 23 points in a dazzling first half and Connecticut won its eighth national championship with a 93-60 rout of Louisville on Tuesday night. It was the most lopsided victory in a title game.

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Connecticut players celebrate after defeating Louisville 93-60 for the national women’s basketball championship Tuesday in New Orleans. UConn is now tied with Tennessee for the most titles, eight. The Associated Press

The title tied Auriemma and the Huskies (35-4) with Pat Summitt and Tennessee for the most in women’s basketball history.

“The fact that I tied Pat Summitt’s record puts you in the category of the greatest women’s basketball coach that ever lived,” Auriemma said. “I’m just thrilled for our seniors. This team accomplished an amazing feat this last month.”

It might not take long for Auriemma to pass Summitt the way Stewart and the rest of his Huskies played. His prized freshman was unstoppable, hitting shots from everywhere on the court to earn Most Outstanding Player honors for the Final Four. Even her father in the stands watching repeatedly said “wow” as his daughter took the game over.

“This is unbelievable,” she said. “This is what we’ve thought about since the beginning of the season. And now to be here and actually win it, it’s a great feeling and I don’t think it’s going to set in for a while. I just played really confident and stopped thinking. When I second-guess myself, nothing good comes out of that.”

The loss ended an unprecedented tournament run by Louisville. The Cardinals became the first No. 5 seed to make the championship game, pulling off the greatest upset in tournament history when they beat Brittney Griner and Baylor in the regional semifinals. Jeff Walz’s team then beat Tennessee in the regional final before topping Cal in the Final Four.

The Cardinals just didn’t have enough to beat their Big East foe. Louisville was trying to become just the second school to win both the men’s and women’s championship in the same season and the first since UConn in 2004.

Louisville men’s coach Rick Pitino, fresh off his team’s 82-76 win in the title game over Michigan on Monday night, was sitting behind the Cardinals bench, trying to spur on the women’s team. He talked to the players at their pregame meal and told them to just enjoy the moment and have fun in the game.

It wasn’t to be, and Pitino was thoroughly impressed by Stewart, too.

“This is one of the best freshman in basketball,” he said in a halftime interview.

This trip to the Big Easy marked the beginning of the Stewart era. The heralded freshman had one of the most remarkable runs of any first year player in the history of the NCAA tournament. She finished with 105 points in the tournament in only five games — she missed the first round rout of Idaho to rest a sore calf. It’s the most by any first-year player since 2000, according to STATS. UConn’s Maya Moore held the previous mark with 93 points.

The 6-foot-4 star passed Moore with a neat tip-in with 7:04 left in the first half. She scored seven points during a 19-0 run that turned a four-point deficit into a double-digit lead and put the Cardinals in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

“We rushed a lot, we started to panic a bit,” Louisville Coach Jeff Walz said. “They started executing.”

Stewart later swooped in for an incredible offense rebound that she put back to make it 39-23. The Huskies led 48-29 at the half as Stewart had 18 points. The 19-point advantage fell four points short of the championship record set by Tennessee against Louisiana Tech in 1998.

UConn dashed any hopes of a Louisville comeback going on a 12-2 run after the Cardinals had cut its deficit to 60-44.

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