With wins over two ACC foes in North Carolina State and Boston College, the Vermont Catamounts were supposed to give the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team a challenge on Thursday night. That challenge lasted all of four minutes.
Maya Moore had 20 points to lead UConn to it’s 46th consectutive win (third longest in women’s basketball history) as they doubled up Vermont 84-42 in front of 8,908 at Gampel Pavilion.
The Huskies (7-0) and Catamounts (4-1) faced off during UConn’s run to the National Championship in 2009 when the Huskies won 104-65 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
UConn was leading 5-4 heading into the first media timeout and whatever Geno Auriemma said worked.
The Huskies came out firing on all cylinders and increased their defensive pressure as they went on an 11-0 run to take 16-4 lead. UConn continued to push the ball and Meghan Gardler’s buzzer-beater gave the Huskies a 32 point lead at 50-18 heading into the locker room.
It’s the third time this season the Huskies have reached 50 points in the first half.
Tina Charles had another excellent game as she had 18 points and 9 rebounds. Tiffany Hayes finished with 9 points and a game-high 6 assists. Kalana Greene added 9 points and both Kelly Faris and Kaili McLaren came off the bench to chip in with 7 points each.
UConn received a little scare from Caroline Doty when she went down after driving to the basket in the first half. Replays showed that she hit her head hard on the floor and she did return to the game and finished with 5 points.
Courtnay Pilypaitis led the Catamounts with 20 points. Vermont’s second leading scorer May Kotsopoulos was held to just five points.
UConn shot 59% from the floor while Vermont shot just 31% and had 20 turnovers. When you make turnovers, UConn makes you pay as they had 29 points off the 20 turnovers.
The Huskies are off until next Thursday when former UConn point guard and current Hartford Hawks coach Jen Rizzotti brings her team across town to the XL Center. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m.
