The No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners were supposed to provide a test for the No. 1 UConn Huskies tonight at Gampel Pavilion. The Sooners did give them a test at times but in the end it was the Huskies who showed why they are the favorites to win the national championship in April in St. Louis.
It was a team effort once again for the Huskies as they cracked 100 points for the first time this season in an 106-78 over the Sooners at Gampel and a national television audience on ESPN.
With the win UConn improve to 5-0 on the young season while Oklahoma falls to 4-2.
Renee Montgomery had her first career double-double with a career high of 30 points and 13 assists (ties UConn school record) and also pulled down 6 rebounds. Two other UConn players had double-doubles as well as Maya Moore had 27 points and 12 rebounds while Tina Charles had 18 points and 10 rebounds to go along with 4 blocked shots. Caroline Doty had a big game as well as she had 18 points on 6-of-6 shooting from 3-point land.
The Sooners had 5 players in double digits led by Danielle Robinson’s 19 points. The Paris sisters both had double-doubles with Ashley scoring 17 points and pulling down 13 rebounds while Courtney had 14 and 14. Whitney Hand chipped in with 13 points and Amanda Thompson added 11 points.
Oklahoma got out to a 5-2 lead before a Doty trey tied the game up at 5 and the Huskies never looked back from there. That’s not to say the Sooners didn’t try to make a game of it because they did.
They held strong trailing by just 5 points with 12:04 to go in the 1st half before UConn used a 16-5 run to take a 38-22 lead with 6:19 left. The Huskies got the lead up to 22 points on another Doty trey before the Sooners closed out the half on a 13-2 run to cut the UConn lead to 50-39 at the half.
The Sooners tried to come back in the 2nd half but they kept on being matched by UConn. They got as close as 8 points in the 2nd half but the Huskies gradually pulled away with a strong second half defensively and a 24-10 run.
Next up for the Huskies is their final game before they break for final exams when the Holy Cross Crusaders come to Gampel Pavilion on Wednesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM and the game will be televised locally on CPTV.
Notes and musings:
Oklahoma Sooners vs UConn Huskies 11.30.08 box score
The starters were Renee Montgomery, Caroline Doty, Kalana Greene, Maya Moore and Tina Charles.
This was only the 2nd time that Courtney Paris was held scoreless in the 1st half in her career.
The last time Oklahoma gave up a 100 points in a game was to the UConn Huskies back in March of 2000.
Courtney and Ashley Paris are the daughters of former NFL lineman Bubba Paris. Abi Olajuwon is the daughter of NBA great Hakeem Olajuwon and Carlee Rothlisberger also has a famous brother as her big brother is Ben, who just happened to help the Pittsburgh Steelers to a win over the Patriots this afternoon.
This was the first time UConn had three players with double-doubles since Feb. 6, 2007, against Rutgers.
The Huskies shot 54.5% (42-of-77) from the floor in the game while Oklahoma shot 38.8% (33-of-88).
UConn made 12 3-pointers in the game shooting 52.2% (12-of-23).
The Huskies were 10-of-14 (71.4%) from the charity stripe.
UConn won the battle of the boards 48-42 and also outscored the Sooners in the paint 42-40.
Both teams took good care of the ball as they both had 8 turnovers.
UConn had 26 fast break points to just 4 for Oklahoma.
The double-double was the third for Maya Moore this season.
