There must be something in the water in Ireland as it appears former UConn Huskies women’s basketball player Mel Thomas has taken a liking to basketball in Ireland.

In just her second professional game for the Bausch & Lomb Waterford Wildcats, she led all scorers with 32 points to help her team to a 86-72 win over Leisureworld Churchfield Iona.

Bausch & Lomb Wildcats led from start to finish in tonight’s game against the newly promoted Cork side, Leisureworld Churchfield Iona. That doesn’t tell the story of the game though, as the home side had to work hard for their victory and could only afford to relax with three or four minutes left on the clock. Mel Thomas and Michelle Aspell again combined to make life tough for the opposition with Thomas scoring 32 and Aspell adding 19. Jillian Hayes played a huge part in tonight’s win also. Her presence and experience under the basket and her 12 points contribution were telling. Cathy Kavanagh continues to improve with every outing while Kristin Zompetti, Jenny Coady and Christine O’Gorman all played important parts in the victory.

In two games with the Wildcats, Mel has now scored 65 points and her team has won both games. On the season, Waterford is 3-1.

Mel and the Wildcats are back in action next Saturday when they venture out to take on UL Aughinish at 7:45 PM local time in Ireland.

Keep it going Mel. We’re all rooting for you back here in the states.

And don’t forget, you can check out her website, MelThomas.com, where you will be able to purchase her new book “Heart of A Husky” in the near future. More details on that when they become available.

It was a tale of two halves as the UConn Huskies dominated the West Virginia Mountaineers on both sides of the ball in the first half. In the second half, it was all Mountaineers as they scored 28 unanswered points to beat UConn 35-13 in front of a sold out crowd at Rentschler Field.

The loss for UConn ended an 11-game winning streak at Rentschler Field and more than likely ends their hopes for a second straight Big East title as they drop to 6-3 (2-2 Big East). With the win, West Virginia becomes bowl eligible at 6-2 (3-0 Big East) and gives them the leg up on the BCS bid from the Big East Conference.

I hate to say it but Randy Edsall got outcoached by Bill Stewart in the second half as obviously the Mountaineers made the adjustment after the Huskies shut them down in the 1st half. UConn did everything they could to take Pat White and Noel Devine out of the game and they did that. Whatever adjustments Stewart made in the second half worked because the pair was unstoppable in the 2nd half. Thank God this is the last time the Huskies will have to ever see White behind center for the Mountaineers.

“When you turn the ball over as many times as we did, five times and drop passes offensively, there is not a big margin of error when you play West Virginia, when you do those things then it is very difficult to give yourself the opportunity to win,” said Randy Edsall. “That is really the tale of what happened, we just did not get it done. On offensive when we had opportunities but we moved the ball on the first drive and then got a fumble. The second half we threw a pass that should have been a touchdown but was a dropped ball. That give you a chance to be up 13 points but then you throw some picks and get the short field. We could not stop them on third and 24 in the first half; it was just a matter of not making the plays when we had to make them.”

After having a decent 1st half with 77 yards, Donald Brown was held to just 5 yards in the 2nd half and failed to reach the century mark for the first time this season in a game. He also had a touchdown on an amazing 21 yard run.

The same could be said for Cody Endres who picked the Mountaineers apart for 112 yards in the 1st half. In the second half, he had 54 yards passing and 3 interceptions thrown. To his credit, some of the balls he threw today should have been caught, including the one in the 3rd quarter that I feel is when the Huskies sail was deflated.

I’m not sure there’s much else to say other than the fact that UConn was totally outplayed and outcoached in the 2nd half. The turnovers killed them as they led to three West Virginia scores in a matter of 4:26.

I don’t see Endres losing the job to Zach Frazer because of his performance today. What I see is an open quarterback competition at practice the next two weeks with the winner getting the start. It won’t matter though if the receivers drop the easy balls like they did this afternoon.

A frustrating loss for the Huskies which pretty much eliminates them from winning the title in the Big East. With 6 wins and Notre Dame more than likely stealing a bowl bid from the Big East, UConn may need to win 2 of their last 3 games to get a spot. That means they’d have to post wins in any of the 3 games remaining against Syracuse, South Florida and Pittsburgh.

Scoring:

Donald Brown's spectacular TD run was one of the few bright spots of the day for the Huskies.

1st quarter

CON – Donald Brown 21 yard run (Dave Teggart PAT) – UConn 7 WVU 0

CON – Teggart 38 yard field goal – UConn 10 WVU 0

2nd quarter

WVU – Pat White 24 yard run (Pat McAfee PAT) – UConn 10 WVU 7

CON – Teggart 38 yard field goal – UConn 13 WVU 7

3rd quarter

WVU – Jock Sanders 6 yard pass from Pat White (McAfee PAT) – WVU 14 UConn 13

WVU – Sanders 3 yard run (McAfee PAT) – WVU 21 UConn 13

WVU – Sanders 3 yard run (McAfee PAT) – WVU 28 UConn 13

4th quarter

WVU – White 36 yard run (McAfee PAT) – WVU 35 UConn 13

Offensive Player of the Game:

The man UConn needed to stop is the player of the game. Pat White was 11-of-19 for 121 yards and a touchdown. He also had 21 carries for 109 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Defensive Players of the Game:

Brandon Hogan of West Virginia had 3 tackles, 2 interceptions and a fumble recovery. Scott Lutrus from UConn had 12 tackles including 1 for a loss.

Turning Point(s) of the Game:

1. The dropped ball by Kashif Moore on the opening drive of the second half on 2nd & 1 turned out to be huge. On the next play from scrimmage, Moe Petrus was called for a false start and the Huskies couldn’t convert on 3rd down. It was all West Virginia after that.
2. Donald Brown’s fumble late in the 3rd quarter led to West Virginia’s third touchdown of the 3rd quarter to seal the Huskies fate.

Continue reading →

During the question and answer period of Congemi’s Corner during halftime of today’s UConn Huskies vs West Virginia game, my question was the first one to be answered.

Here is the answer to my question and the others by John Congemi.

During today’s game at halftime, UConn Huskies defensive end Cody Brown was the guest on Congemi’s Corner.

The local scribes are writing that the UConn Huskies will start Cody Endres at QB1 for the second straight week. Kickoff is in 20 minutes.