The snow was falling tonight in Hartford, CT and so were the baskets for the No. 1 UConn Huskies in the 2nd half as they overcame their first half shooting woes to beat their archrival the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 75-56 in front of 12,910 at the XL Center.
The win for the Huskies improves their record to 22-0 (8-0 Big East) while the Scarlet Knights drop to 12-8 (4-5). It’s the 4th time since the 1994-95 season that the Huskies have opened up a season 22-0 and the first time since 2002-03 season.
Maya Moore’s 11th double-double of the season of 24 points and 10 rebounds led the Huskies. Kalana Greene had her finest game of the season with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals while Renee Montgomery had 15 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocked shots. Tiffany Hayes, who got her first career start in place of Lorin Dixon, continued her stellar play with 13 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. Tina Charles found herself in the doghouse tonight and finished with just 2 points and 2 rebounds in 14 minutes.
C. Vivian Stringer’s team was led by Epiphanny Prince’s 19 points. Khaddijah Rushdan added 18 points and 9 rebounds while both Kia Vaughn and Brittany Ray had 8 points.
The two teams exchanged baskets early on and with UConn leading 15-11, they went on a 7-0 run to open up an 11 point lead. Then their play turned sloppy and Rutgers got back into the game with an 11-0 run behind Vaughn’s 8 points to tie the game up at 22. Rutgers went cold for the next 3 minutes but UConn was only able to score 4 points. The Huskies eventually took a 34-28 lead at the break.
With Charles pulling a disappearing act in the first half, Geno Auriemma decided to start Meghan Gardler and the move paid off for him as she played some excellent defense on Vaughn and had 2 offensive rebounds and 3 assists on UConn’s 14-4 run to start the second half.
The Scarlet Knights never really got their vaunted “55” pressure defense going at all and when they did it was only effective for a play or two as they tried to come back from the 16 point deficit after the 14-4 run. They would get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way with UConn’s biggest lead coming at 57-37 and 59-39.
The inconsistent play from Charles is something we’ve seen throughout her career and some may question what Geno was doing by benching her without a deep bench. I won’t question it because he knows what’s best for his team. And what was best for his team was starting Gardler in the second half. Like I said above, she didn’t disappoint as she played high-energy Connecticut basketball for the stretch that she was in the game for the second half and helped shut down Vaughn on the defensive end.
Next up for the Huskies is a trip to Milwaukee, WI to take on the Marquette Golden Eagles on Saturday night at 8 PM. The game will be broadcast on CPTV.
Williams got the start at defensive end and had 4 tackles in the game. Deleston, who played safety at UConn, had 4 tackles from the outside linebacker position.
