The UConn women played their first national television game this season and showed the rest of the country why they are the #1 team in the land as they doubled up the Purdue Boilermakers 100-50 at Mackey Arena on Sunday afternoon. It was the worst loss for the Boilermakers in their history.
Tina Charles led 5 Huskies in double figures as she had her 6th double-double of the season with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Brittany Hunter had a productive 11 minutes as she put up 15 points and 7 rebounds. Meghan Gardler added a career-high 14 points while Renee Montgomery added 13 points. Maya Moore rounded out the Huskies in double digits as she scored 13 points and added 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks to the cause.
Danielle Campbell led the Boilermakers (6-8) with 12 points and 5 rebounds. Lakisha Freeman scored 10 points and pulled down 5 boards as well. FahKara Malone added 9 points for Purdue in the losing effort.
This game was over as soon as Moore started the game with a 3-pointer for the Huskies (13-0) and they turned that into an 11-0 run. Purdue finally got on the board with 16 minutes left in the first half when Campell hit two free throws. UConn went on another 8-0 run before Purdue scored 2 more points on free throws. UConn went on another 11-0 run to go up 29-4 before the Boilermakers made their first basket of the game with 9:06 remaining in the half after missing their first 13 shots. The Huskies would go into the break with a 53-14 lead.
It was more of the same in the second half as Geno Auriemma was able to give his starters a break and let the reserves play. Mel Thomas and Jacquie Fernandes were the only Huskies not to score in the game.
UConn will return home on Wednesday night to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers in a Big East game. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM and the game will be shown locally on CPTV.
Notes and Observations:
The starters were Renee Montgomery, Mel Thomas, Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Brittany Hunter.
As Steve told you, Caroline Doty and Elena Delle Donne were at Thursday night’s game and provided some quotes for the local media here in Connecticut. You can check it out by clicking here.
This was the first time the Huskies hit the century mark in a game. They had scored 90+ points in 3 games this season.
UConn’s defense was dominant in the first half holding the Boilermakers to 15.4% (4-26). Purdue finished the game shooting 28.2% (19-66). UConn shot 48.8% (39-80) for the game.
UConn had assists on 25 of the 39 made baskets.
UConn outrebounded the Boilermakers 55-34 and have not been outrebounded this season.
UConn’s free throw shooting was better as they shot 75% (15-20).
Purdue had 16 turnovers in the first half but only committed 5 in the second half for 21 total in the game. UConn did commit 14 turnovers.
Auriemma has yet to wear a tie this season.
