It was Terri Mitchell bobblehead night at the Al McGuire Center Saturday. But while the chins on the dolls were moving up and down, there was a stretch in the middle of the first half when it seemed as though the real Mitchell – the one pacing in front of the home bench – could only shake her head as Connecticut ran off 12 straight points to put Marquette down for good.

"You can't disappear for 10 minutes in the first half against a top-10 team who knows how to win," Mitchell said. "You can't put yourself in that much of a hole."

With 10:58 to play in the half, sophomore Kelly Lam hit an 18-footer to put Marquette up 11-8. Four-and-a-half minutes later, Lam corralled a pass from sophomore Erin Monfre and laid it in off the glass.

The Golden Eagles (19-4, 7-3 Big East) didn't actually disappear in between the two buckets, of course. But with the way things were going, some of them might have wished they had.

First, sophomore Krystal Ellis lost the ball to UConn guard Charde Houston, who found an open Mel Thomas for a three to tie the game. Marquette's next seven possessions were less than inspiring: turnover, blocked shot, missed three, turnover, turnover, turnover, missed three.

Connecticut guard Renee Montgomery was a terror on both ends of the floor during the stretch, notching a pair of steals, hitting teammate Ketia Swanier in transition for an easy two and converting a three-point play after driving for a layup and drawing a foul.

Two timeouts less than a minute apart didn't slow down the Huskies (20-2, 10-0), who responded to both with more of the same: forced turnovers and transition baskets.

After Lam hit a layup of her own to stop the bleeding, Thomas drilled another three from the corner to push the run to 15-2. Marquette managed to rally in the second half but never tied or took the lead after giving it up to start the run.

Even senior center Christina Quaye, whose 20 points, nine rebounds and three steals kept Marquette alive down the stretch, couldn't touch the Huskies while they were running away early on, missing a three and losing the ball to Montgomery on consecutive possessions.

"You have to put two halves together and can't have letdowns in the first half," Quaye said.

The ugly first half came on the heels of a Jan. 30 loss at Rutgers in which the Golden Eagles were on the wrong end of a 16-3 run to open the game.

But if an early collapse seemed familiar to Marquette, a torrid stretch to bury a conference opponent must have looked downright ordinary for Connecticut: The Huskies posted a 10-0 run in a Jan. 24 win over DePaul, two 9-0 runs to down St. John's on Jan. 21 and an 18-2 blitz to sink West Virginia Jan. 2.S

So what kept Connecticut from running away with the game? Head coach Geno Auriemma said putting up big leads and sustaining it haven't come hand-in-hand for his team to date.

"They're too young. They don't understand what a killer instinct is," he said. "They need to figure that one out. And I think they will."

Meanwhile, given the way the Golden Eagles have been kicking off games lately, Mitchell might need to give a crash course in survival skills.