If Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies women’s basketball team keeps beating his friends’ teams badly, he’s going to end up with no friends.
Last Saturday, it was Harry Perretta’s Villanova Wildcats squad. This Saturday, it was his Olympic assistant coach and good friend Doug Bruno’s DePaul Blue Demons.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scored 25 points to help the Huskies to a relatively easy 88-44 win over the Blue Demons in front of 4,001 at McGrath-Phillips Arena in Chicago, IL.
The No. 3 Huskies, who completed a 3-0 week which included wins over two ranked teams, improve to 17-2 (6-1 Big East). The injury-depleted Blue Demons fall to 15-5 (3-3).
Besides tying her career-high of 25 points, KML pulled down seven rebounds. Tiffany Hayes added 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals while Stefanie Dolson had 10 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots. Bria Hartley chipped in with 10 points and six steals but had five turnovers.
As usual, Kelly Faris had a nice all around game with eight points, seven rebounds, six assists, two steals and three blocked shots.
Brittany Hrynko led the Blue Demons with 18 points and four rebounds but she did turn the ball over nine times. Jasmine Penny added seven points while Deanna Ortiz had six. DePaul’s leading scorer, Anna Martin, was held scoreless.
As the game of basketball goes, so do the runs.
The Huskies started this game out with an 11-0 run before DePaul finally got on the scoreboard on a Katherine Harry jumper with 16:14 to go in the half. UConn followed that run with an 11-3 run to open up a 17 point lead.
Over the next six or so minutes the play was a little helter skelter as both teams had trouble scoring and taking care of the ball. DePaul would work UConn’s lead down to 12 a few times before things started clicking for them.
With a 32-16 lead, the Huskies seized control of the game with a 21-4 run to push their lead to 33 points at 53-20. Hrynko hit two free throws just before halftime to cut UConn’s lead to 31 points.
Within the first six minutes of the half, UConn worked the lead up to 40 points and allowed Auriemma to rest his starters and get the bench some more work.
The one bad thing to come from the game was the fact that Caroline Doty tweaked her knee in the first half after playing just two minutes. There wasn’t any noticeable play where she did it but it could have come from the fact that UConn just played on Thursday night and then had an awful travel day on Friday with the weather that plagued the Midwest before hitting the Northeast on Saturday.
The Huskies couldn’t land in Chicago due to the inclement weather so they were forced to Indianpolis and then took a five hour snowy bus ride to get to Chicago. So without speculating, I’m going to say that’s probably what helped force Doty from the game. Hopefully, it turns out to be nothing and she’ll be back on the court next time out.
That next time out will come on Wednesday night when the Huskies head to upstate New York for a matchup with the Syracuse Orange. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised locally in Connecticut on CPTV.
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Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ DePaul Blue Demons 1.21.12 box score
UConn ended DePaul’s 28-game home winning streak. Ironically enough, UConn was the last team to beat them at home back on February 10, 2010.
The starters for the Huskies were the usual five of Bria Hartley, Caroline Doty, Tiffany Hayes, Kelly Faris and Stefanie Dolson.
Tiffany Hayes has now scored in double figures in eight straight games.
UConn shot 54.7% (29-53) from the floor while the Blue Demons shot 27.8% (15-54).
The Huskies had 19 assists on their 29 made baskets.
UConn shot 47.4% (9-19) from beyond the arc while DePaul shot 30.8% (8-26).
The Huskies went 21-of-26 (80.8%) from the charity stripe.
UConn dominated the glass, outrebounding the Blue Demons 48-22.
The Huskies scored 33 points off of 23 DePaul turnovers. The Blue Demons nine points off 19 UConn turnovers.
UConn outscored DePaul 30-8 in the paint and just 4-2 on the fast break.
The Huskies had 20 second chance points to eight for the Blue Demons.
UConn’s bench had 46 points.
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Photo credit: AP Photo
