If UConn Huskies women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma wasn’t happy after last night’s 46 point win over FDU, he certainly isn’t going to be pleased at how sloppy his team played early on in Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Bulls. Fortunately for the Huskies, Buffalo wasn’t playing any better at the time.
And with that UConn took advantage with a 19-0 run to close out the first half on their way to a 90-36 win over the Bulls in front of 6,156 at Gampel Pavilion on campus in Storrs, CT in the World Vision Classic.
The Huskies move to 5-0 and will play the Dayton Flyers at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow for the championship of the World Vision Classic as both teams are 2-0 in the round robin format. Buffalo falls to 2-4 and will take on FDU at 2 p.m.
Tiffany Hayes led the Huskies with 30 points, 11 rebounds and five steals. Stefanie Dolson added 17 points and six rebounds while Kelly Faris chipped in with 13 points, six rebounds and three steals. Heather Buck came off the bench and had another fine game with eight points and seven rebounds.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had her first bad game of the season as she finished 0-of-8 from the floor and had just two points. She did lead the Huskies with seven assists. The only Husky not to score was Lauren Englen.
Brittany Hedderson had 12 points to lead the Bulls and was their only player in double figures. Their next highest scorer, Ephesia Holmes, had five points with Margeaux Gupilan and Rachel Bantleman adding four each.
With both teams turning the ball over like it was in style, the game was not pretty early on. Buffalo actually held a 4-2 lead but that would be the last time they would see that. With UConn holding a 13-8 lead, they used a 8-2 run to open up an 11 point lead.
Buffalo’s last points of the first half would with 6:52 remaining and at that point it was 25-14. UConn would close out the half on a 19-0 run to put this game completely out of reach.
UConn would keep building their lead during the second as Auriemma was able to rest his starters in preparation for tomorrow’s game.
Honestly, there isn’t much to say about this oneon .
We know Geno won’t be happy with the way they played in the beginning and once again, I’m sure the players are happy they’re playing tomorrow and not practicing.
It’s still early in the season and most of the mistakes they are making are correctable. I expect them to fix them as the season goes on.
It’ll be a quick turnaround with the game tomorrow coming at 4:30 p.m. If you’d like to watch it, it’ll be broadcast in Connecticut on CPTV.
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Notes and musings:
Buffalo Bulls @ UConn Huskies 11-26-11 World Vision Classic box score
Here are the postgame quotes from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma and Buffalo head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald.
This was the 88th straight home win for the Huskies.
The starters for the Huskies were Bria Hartley, Caroline Doty, Tiffany Hayes, Kelly Faris and Stefanie Dolson.
UConn shot 47.8% (33-69) from the floor while Buffalo shot 28.6% (14-49).
The Huskies had 24 assists on their 33 made baskets.
UConn was 5-of-19 (26.3%) on threes while the Bulls were 4-of-20 (20%).
After an awful free throw shooting performance on Friday, the Huskies were much better on Saturday as they were 19-of-20 (95%).
UConn dominated the glass, outrebounding Buffalo 49-22.
The Huskies outscored the Bulls 42-8 in the paint, 13-4 on the fast break and 27-9 on second chance points.
UConn had 39 points off of 32 Buffalo turnovers. The Bulls had eight points off of 16 Huskies turnovers.
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Photo credit: AP Photo
