What started out as night of joy for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as senior Tiffany Hayes and seven team managers were honored on Senior Night, ended in stunning fashion.
Shenneika Smith’s three-pointer with eight seconds left in the game turned out to be the difference as the St. John’s Red Storm upset UConn 57-56 in front of 9,552 at Gampel Pavilion on Saturday night.
The loss for the Huskies (24-3, 11-2 Big East) ended their home winning streak at 99 games. St. John’s (18-8, 10-3) ends UConn’s streak of 261 straight home games with wins over unranked opponents.
UConn was trailing 54-53 when Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis made one of two free throws with 1:07 to go. With St. John’s down on the offensive end, Stefanie Dolson picked up a big steal. She ended up being rewarded for her effort at the defensive end with the go-ahead basket with 34 seconds to go.
St. John’s called timeout to set up their play and with the Huskies having two fouls to give, Tiffany Hayes used one of the two fouls with 19 seconds to go. After seeing UConn’s defense, the Red Storm called timeout again with 16 seconds left. Bria Hartley used the Huskies final foul with 12 seconds left.
But with tight defense on her, Smith nailed the three pointer and the Huskies brought the ball back up the court only see to Hartley’s last second three bounce off the rim leaving Geno Auriemma’s squad stunned as well as the Gampel crowd.
KML led the way for the Huskies with 12 points and had six rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots. Kiah Stokes tied her career-high of 11 points and also pulled down six rebounds while Hartley had 10 points and six rebounds as well.
Kelly Faris finished with nine points and six rebounds. Hayes, on her Senior Night, had eight points and three rebounds but turned the ball over seven times.
Connecticut native De’Shena Stevens and Nadirah McKenith led the Red Storm with 15 points each. Stevens pulled down eight rebounds while McKenith added seven rebounds and seven assists. Smith chipped in with 11 points, six rebounds and three steals.
The Huskies got out of the gates quickly in this one taking an 11-3 lead only to see the Red Storm battle back with a 12-0 run take a four-point lead. Stokes finally stopped the bleeding with a layup that was part of an 8-2 run that saw UConn go back in front 19-17.
UConn would build their lead to six points at 27-21 before St. John’s used six straight points to tie the game back up. KML hit a three to put the Huskies back in the lead but the Red Storm used a 7-2 run to take a 34-32 lead at the break. It was the first time all year that UConn trailed at the half and that included their previous two losses.
The two teams kept the game close in the second with neither team unable to get anything higher than a four point lead. UConn then went cold for six minutes from the floor and that allowed St. John’s to retake the lead setting up the final scramble.
One thing that Auriemma has been harping on is how many turnovers his team had been committing. The last time out against Oklahoma, they took great care of the ball. On Saturday night, they had 18 which St. John’s took advantage of, converting them into 20 points.
Tough loss overall for the Huskies. They definitely did not play well at all. There were a lot of times where they didn’t play like a team but rather as a group of individuals.
UConn will now have to regroup and focus their efforts on their final three Big East games of the season. The first one of those will come on Tuesday night when they head to Pittsburgh, PA to take on the Pitt Panthers. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will televised locally here in Connecticut on CPTV.
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Notes and musings:
St. John’s Red Storm @ UConn Huskies 2.18.12 box score
Here are the postgame quotes from UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma and St. John’s Red Storm head coach Kim Barnes-Arico. There are also quotes available from select UConn players.
It’s the second time this season that the UConn women and UConn men lost on the same day. Both had previously lost on January 7th.
However, it’s the first time the two teams lost at home on the same day since February 27, 1993.
The loss ended UConn’s 99 game home winning streak. Their last lost at home was against Louisville in the finals of the 2007 Big East Tournament.
The loss also ended UConn’s 261 game winning streak at home against non-ranked opponents.
UConn had also won 171 straight games against non-ranked opponents before the loss.
The starting five for the Huskies were the usual five of Bria Hartley, Caroline Doty, Tiffany Hayes, Kelly Faris and Stefanie Dolson.
UConn shot 43.1% (22-51) from the floor while St. John’s shot 38.5% (25-65).
The Huskies had 13 assists on their 22 made baskets.
UConn was 5-of-16 (31.3%) from beyond the arc. The Red Storm were 2-of-8 (25%).
The Huskies were 7-of-10 (70%) from the free throw line.
UConn won the battle of the boards, outrebounding St. John’s 37-34.
The Red Storm outscored the Huskies 32-28.
Both teams had six points on the fast break.
St. John’s had 16 points to 10 for UConn.
The Huskies had eight points off of nine Red Storm turnovers. St. John’s had 20 points off of 18 UConn turnovers.
UConn’s bench outscored St. John’s 23-4. KML and Stokes were the only bench players to play for the Huskies.
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Photo credit: AP Photo (No. 6 in gallery)
