For a team coming off a 70 point win over Northeastern, a tough test was what the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team needed.

Consider that test passed as the Huskies beat the Texas Longhorns 83-58 in the ESPNU Road To The Championship in front of 4,586 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

With the win the Huskies move to 2-0 and showed the rest of the country that you will need to bring your A+ game to beat them. The Longhorns fall to 1-1 on the young season.

Maya Moore, one of five Huskies in double figures, led the way with the 29th double-double of her brilliant career scoring 20 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. Tina Charles played just eight minutes in the first half because of foul trouble chipped in with 15 points and 11 rebounds for her 40th career double-double.

Kalana Greene had 14 points and 6 rebounds while Caroline Doty had 13 points. Tiffany Hayes rounded out the Huskies in double digits with 10 points.

Two time SOX & Dawgs Hotties of the NCAA Tournament winner Kathleen Nash led the Longhorns with a game-high 22 points and 9 rebounds. Brittainey Raven was the only other member of the Longhorns in double figures with 14 points.

Texas got out to quick 3-0 lead but that’s the last time they would see themselves out front. The Huskies went on a 22-6 run over an 8:11 span and never looked back from there despite having two players on the bench (Hayes, Charles) with foul trouble.

Doty put the proverbial icing on the cake with a three-pointer at the end of the first half to give the Huskies a 48-27 lead at the break.

UConn’s lead would swell to as high as 35 points with 5:48 in the game before finishing with the 25 point victory.

The Huskies return to action on Friday night when they make the short trip up to Worcester, Mass to take on the Holy Cross Crusaders at the DCU Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be televised locally in Connecticut on CPTV.

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One of these days the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team is going to put head coach Jim Calhoun in the cardiac wing named after him.

After a strong second half last night, the Huskies continued that in the first half before forgetting how to play again. This time they got lucky though as Jerome Dyson hit all but one of his free throws down the stretch as UConn escaped with a 76-67 win over the Hofstra Pride in the second round of the Preseason NIT Tip-off at Gampel Pavilion on Tuesday night.

The Huskies (3-0) now advance to the semifinals on November 25th at Madison Square Garden where they will take on the LSU Tigers. Hofstra (1-2) has also lost to No. 1 Kansas this year.

Dyson, one of four Huskies in double figures led the way  scoring 15 of his 23 points in the final 7:11 of the game. He also had three rebounds, four assists and two steals. Stanley Robinson had 15 points while point guard Kemba Walker had 16 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Gavin Edwards rounded out the Huskies in double digits with 10 points and also had five blocked shots.

Freshman Alex Oriakhi led the Huskies with 14 rebounds to go along with eight points and four blocked shots.

The Pride were paced by Charles Jenkins’ 25 points and eight assists, three steals and three blocks. Cornelius Vines scored all 18 of his points on six three-pointers.

UConn went into the break with a seven point lead at 30-23. The lead bounced down as low as three points and not higher than seven over the first five minutes of the second half. The  Pride then began to chip away at the lead as they got hot from behind the arc.

Hofstra took its first lead with 11:12 to go in the game at 45-43 on a Jenkins three. After an Oriakhi layup, the Pride rattled in two straight threes, the first by Halil Kanacevc and the second by Jenkins to take a 51-45 lead and forced Calhoun to call a timeout.

Vines hit another three with 9:10 to go to put the Pride up by nine points and it looked as though they could pull off the upset. The Huskies were resilient though as Robinson responded with a three pointer and started to chip back at the lead.

Hofstra’s last lead of the game came at the 4:35 mark at 62-61.Then the senior shooting guard from Potomac, Maryland (Dyson) stepped us game and put his team and on his back. Dyson looked like a man possessed carrying the Huskies over the final 4:35 of the game.

One thing’s for certain. If the Huskies continue to play like this, they aren’t going to get very far. They’ve always had problems against the zone on offense and teams continue to exploit that weakness. Plus there perimeter defense was sub-par as Hofstra hit 9 three pointers and that’s what almost cost the Huskies a win.

They will need to play much better against LSU to have any shot. The good this is that they’ll have a week to prepare. You can bet Calhoun will have them ready to play on the big stage in New York next Wednesday night.

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It’s game day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as they are in San Antonio for the ESPNU Road to the Championship. They will take on the Texas Longhorns at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

It’s also game day for the UConn men’s basketball team as they will host the Hofstra Pride in the second round of the NIT Preseason Tip-Off. The game is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m. and will be televised locally here in Connecticut on My-TV9 and SNY. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Here are some video highlights of the win over Northeastern on Saturday courtesy of Boneyarder Daddychoc.

Oderint dum metuant [Alysa Auriemma]

Louisville, Arizona State on their way [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

McLaren Likely For Texas; Dixon Not With Team [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Ramdon Thoughts From The Riverwalk’s Edge [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

For Buck, It’s A Start [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

Positive Sign [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

Game day: No. 10 Texas vs. No. 1 UConn women [Connecticut Post]

UConn women relish early test vs. Texas [Connecticut Post]

Return Trip To Texas The Goal For UConn Women [Hartford Courant]

Preview: UConn Women Vs. Texas [Hartford Courant]

Auriemma, UConn welcome early test [New Haven Register]

Doty, Hayes sharing duties at point guard [The Day]

Texas will provide UConn women with some tougher competition tonight [The Republican-American]

Texas renews series against top-ranked Connecticut [The Daily Texan]

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Jim Calhoun probably won’t be happy with his team for their play in the first half. But he should be somewhat pleased with the way his team responded in the second half.

Stanley Robinson was perfect from the floor as he led five UConn Huskies in double figures to lead them to a 77-63 win over the Colgate Red Raiders at Gampel Pavilion to advance to the second round of the NIT Preseason Tip-Off on Monday night.

It will be a quick turnaround as the Huskies (2-0) will take on the Hofstra Pride for the right to go to Madison Square Garden on November 25 and 27 on Tuesday evening at 7:00 p.m. The game will be televised locally on My-TV9 and SNY.

Robinson, who was 8-for-8 from the floor and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc, had 18 points, three rebounds and three assists. The only shots Robinson missed were from the free throw line. Kemba Walker chipped in with 16 points, six assists and five steals while Gavin Edwards had 14 points, five rebounds and three blocks.

Freshman Jamal Coombs-McDaniel added 11 points and Jerome Dyson had ten points. Freshman Alex Oriakhi led the Huskies with eight rebounds while scoring four points.

Colgate (0-1), who will take on Yale in the consolation game at 4:30 p.m., was led by Mike Venezia who had 17 points.  Kyle Roemer and Yaw Gyawu both had 12 points.

It wasn’t pretty for the Huskies in the first half at all. They started out quickly but then got sloppy and that allowed the Red Raiders to stay in the game. They got out to a nine point lead at 15-6 behind a dunk by Robinson on the fast break but Colgate responded with a 7-2 run to cut the UConn lead to four.

After exchanging baskets, the Red Raiders went on an 13-2 run and got out to a four point lead at 26-22. After a Walker layup, a three pointer by Roemer gave them a five point lead at 29-24. The Huskies closed out the half on a 9-3 run to take a one point lead into the locker room at 33-32.

Whatever Calhoun said to them at the break worked as the Huskies seemed to figure out how to beat the Colgate zone. The Red Raiders did look a little heavy-legged as UConn ran them to death going on a big 21-5 run to break the game wide open. UConn’s lead swelled to 22 points before Colgate worked it back down into the teens but it was too late for them.

For three halves this season, the Huskies have looked a little ragged. For them to have any success against zones this year, they will need to repeat their second half performance from Monday. Otherwise it might turn into a long season.

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The Big East announced on Monday that the game between the UConn Huskies and the visiting Syracuse Greg Paulus’ Orange on November 28th will be televised as the Game of the Week on the Big East Network.

It will kickoff at 12:00 p.m at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, CT. and be shown locally here in Connecticut on My-TV9 and also on SNY. I’m sure other regional channels will be announced next week.

The Huskies face a tall task of becoming bowl eligible as they really need to win their final three games. Two wins will make them bowl eligible but finishing off the season with three straight may sit better with the people making the bowl selections.

But first the Huskies will have to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in South Bend, IN. That game will be televised nationally on NBC.