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BENMARGOT—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS The Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry celebrates a score during the second half Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers in Oakland. ByTimReynolds TheAssociatedPress MIAMI GoldenState,takenote.Put- ting together a historic regular-sea- son is only half the battle for teams trying to etch out a spot in the an- nals of sports immortality. It doesn't guarantee a title. If the Warriors break the Chicago Bulls' single-season win record of 72 set back in the 1995-96 season, they'll be celebrated as the greatest team in NBA history — of the regular-season variety, that is. To go down as truly the best ever, as unfair as this may seem, they would still have to win a championship. Here's some teams that had regu- lar seasons for all-time, yet fell short of ending their seasons with their sport's biggest prize. NHL DETROIT RED WINGS, 1995-96 With a league all-time record 62 wins in the 1995-96 regular season, the Detroit Red Wings were miles above the rest of the NHL. They finished the regu- lar season with 131 points, 27 more than the second-best team in the league that year. That team would be the Colorado Avalanche, and they weren't second- best in the playoffs. The Wings' season started with a loss in Denver, and that's how it ended as well. Detroit didn't even get to the Stanley Cup final, losing in six games to Colorado in the West- ern Conference final. The Avalanche would go on to roll past Florida for the Stanley Cup. Detroit won 22 out of 24 games in one regular-season stretch, didn't lose a single game at home in Novem- ber, December, January and Febru- ary — and still fell short of the ulti- mate prize. "We said it, and we meant it," Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman said. "Winning 62 games in the regular season meant nothing." MLB SEATTLE MARINERS, 2001 Seattle CHAMPIONSHIP Historicregularseasonneedstitle Warriorslooktobreak Bulls' single-season wins mark, add championship Staff Report The Mercy High School golf team is coached by Jeff Phelps and players include freshman Spencer Flynn, senior Junior Grace, senior Megan Realander and sophomore Shane Rhodes. The Warriors play in the Five Star League, which includes Lib- erty Christian, Redding Chris- tian, Core Butte, Los Molinos, Loyalton and Paradise Adven- tist. A March 23 league match hosted by Redding Chris- tian saw the following results: Rhodes took first place with a score of 39, Grace was fourth with a score of score of 51 and Realander was sixth with a score of 53. The team tied for second in the team competition in the Oroville Par 3 Invitational golf tournament on Monday, which included teams from Lassen, Weed, Redding Christian, Oro- ville, Corning, Las Plumas, Wheatland and Sutter. Rhodes and Grace took first place with a score of 57. GOLF RHODES TAKES TWO FIRSTS FOR MERCY Warriors sophomore shoots 39 to win league match, shares Oroville Par 3 title with Grace CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Pictured, from le , are Spencer Flynn, Junior Grace, coach Jeff Phelps, Megan Realander and Shane Rhodes. By Doug Feinberg AP Basketball Writer INDIANAPOLIS Breanna Stew- art and UConn stand alone. Geno Auriemma, too, after an- other flawless season by the dominating Huskies. UConn won an unprece- dented fourth straight na- tional championship Tuesday night, capping another perfect season by routing Syracuse 82- 51. Until now, only the UCLA men's team had won four in a row in Division I, rolling to seven consecutive champion- ships under John Wooden from 1967-73. With Tuesday's victory, Auriemma passed the Wizard of Westwood with his 11th na- tional title. "What those 11 champion- ships mean to me is how many great players I've had the op- portunity to coach," Auriemma said. "How many great people have come through the program. It doesn't matter whose name is above, or whose name I'm under. As long as I have those players in my memory, I'm good." Stewart said when she came to campus four years ago that she wanted to win four titles. She delivered on that promise by scoring 24 points and grab- bing 10 rebounds in her final col- lege game. "It's unbelievable," Stewart said. "That was our goal coming in here once we were freshman and to carry it out and win like this as seniors is unbelievable." The Huskies (38-0) have been nearly unbeatable since Stewart arrived. They lost four games her freshman year and only one since. The win over Syracuse was the 75th straight for UConn — all by double figures. Stewart and her fellow seniors went 24-0 in NCAA tourney games, too. Stewart earned the most out- standing player of the Final Four all four years of her career. No other women's player has won it more than twice and only Lew Alcindor did it three times on the men's side. The three-time AP Player of the Year has said it is up to oth- ers to decide her place in wom- en's college basketball lore. There is no denying she is the most accomplished player ever, winning more titles than fellow UConn greats Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore, who watched from the stands at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Like the other great UConn teams, this version had a killer instinct. The Huskies scored the first nine points of the game. Stewart had 10 points in the first 6 minutes as UConn built a 23-6 lead. When the Orange made a little run to cut its defi- cit to 25-13, Moriah Jefferson hit a 3-pointer off a nifty play just before the first-quarter buzzer. UConn's big three of Stewart, Jefferson and Morgan Tuck, who have helped the Huskies to an NCAA record 151 wins over their four years, combined for 26 of the 28 points in the period. They also handled the Or- ange's press with precision pass- ing that led to easy layups. The Huskies were up 50-23 at the half and extended the lead to 33 early in third quarter before Syr- acuse scored 16 straight points to get within 60-43 with 2:02 left in the period that brought the Orange fans to their feet. Consecutive layups by Napheesa Collier restored the 20-plus point lead and UConn cruised from there. "Not shocked by how good they are, not shocked by the things they did in the game. We were definitely prepared for it," Syracuse coach Quentin Hills- man said. "One of the things I told our kids is you have no rea- son to be scared when you're prepared and we competed. We didn't play scared." WOMEN'S NCAA TOURNAMENT UConn beats Syracuse for 4th straight title GIANTS2,BREWERS1 Up next: San Francisco Giants at Milwaukee Brewers, 10:40a.m. Wednesday, TV on CSN-BA. THESCORE SHARKS 3, WILD 0 Up next: Winnipeg Jets at San Jose Sharks, 7:30p.m. Thursday, TV on CSN-CA-Plus THESCORE By Andrew Baggarly Bay Area News Group MILWAUKEE For 21 years, the franchise that brought Juan Mar- ichal to the major leagues qui- etly suffered in a drought. It had been that long since the San Fran- cisco Giants received a win from a starting pitcher born in the Do- minican Republic. Johnny Cueto brought it to an end Tuesday night, using his own mix of improvisation and effer- vescence to subdue the Milwau- kee Brewers in a 2-1 victory at Miller Park. In his first start since sign- ing a six-year, $130 million con- tract, Cueto did not overpower the Brewers as much as outsmart them. He showed a range of deliv- eries, brushed the fringes of the zone and slipped out of two entan- glements while allowing a run on six hits in seven innings. Brandon Crawford hit a solo home run in the third, Matt Duffy chopped home the tiebreaking run in the fourth, Sergio Romo got through the eighth and Santi- ago Casilla saved the first victory by a Dominican starting pitcher in franchise history since jour- BASEBALL Cueto has dandy debut for Giants By Curtis Pashelka Bay Area News Group ST. PAUL, MINN. Patrick Mar- leau scored twice, Logan Cou- ture added another and James Reimer made 29 saves as the San Jose Sharks beat the Minnesota Wild 3-0 on Tuesday to set a new franchise record for road wins in a season. Reimer made 24 saves over the final two periods for his third shutout in a San Jose uniform as the Sharks finished the sea- son with a road record of 28-10- 3, eclipsing the old record of 27- 10-4 set in 2007-08. The Sharks also momentarily made up ground on the top two teams in the Pacific Division, moving to within two points of first place Anaheim and on point of second place Los Angeles. Both the Kings and Ducks were playing NHL Sharks tame Wild with shutout win PRIZE PAGE 2 GIANTS PAGE 2 SHARKS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, April 6, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1