Tina Charles led four UConn Huskies in double figures with 15 points as the Huskies overcame a slow start to beat the Old Dominion Lady Monarchs 86-43 in the Paradise Jam at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas.
Charles also added 8 rebounds. Renee Montgomery added 12 points, Kalana Greene had 10 points and freshman sensation Maya Moore rounded the Huskies in double figures with 10 points as well. Senior co-captain Mel Thomas just missed making it 5 Huskies in double figures with 9 points.
T.J. Jordan led the Lady Monarchs (4-1) with 13 points while Shahida Williams added 9 points and 6 rebounds.
If you saw the game, you wouldn’t have thought the final margin was 43 points. Both teams struggled out of the gate and had trouble getting into their offenses. Old Dominion actually was playing a lot better than UConn but they couldn’t pull away. UConn was down by a point at 14-13 before they went on a 9-0 run to go up by 8 points. The Lady Monarchs scored the next 5 points before UConn closed out the first half on a 15-1 run, led by 8 points from Charles, to go into the locker room up by 17 at 37-20.
For the second night in a row, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma lit a fire under his Huskies as they came out firing on all cylinders. A 9-0 run put the Huskies up 48-24. The Huskies continued to pull away as Auriemma emptied out his bench in latter part of the second half.
UConn (4-0) will enjoy a day off on Saturday and then will play in the championship game on Sunday where they will face Brittany Hunter’s old school, the Duke Blue Devils at 8:30 PM. The game will be televised on CPTV here in Huskyland.
Notes and Observations:
The starting lineup was Renee Montgomery, Mel Thomas, Tina Charles, Kalana Greene and Brittany Hunter.
Not sure why Charde Houston wasn’t in the starting lineup today but she only played 3 minutes.
Lorin Dixon obviously wasn’t in Geno’s doghouse like I thought she might be as she saw 9 minutes in the game scoring 6 points.
UConn’s entire team saw action in the game tonight and the bench scored 32 points of the 86 in the game.
At one point in the second half, the Huskies were 14 of 18 (77.8%) from the field. They finished the game shooting 64.9% (37-57). They held the Lady Monarchs to 29% (18-62).
Okay y’all know how much I harp on free throw shooting. The Lady Monarchs were absolutely brutal at the charity stripe. They were 4 of 18 (22.2%). The Huskies got to the line 10 times, making 6 of those.
Hunter was perfect from the floor (4-4) for 8 points and she added 7 rebounds as well in just 10 minutes.
While looking for the boxscore on ESPN, I came across this gem:
UConn had 24 assists on 37 made baskets and forced 20 turnovers while committing 16 of their own.
UConn and Duke are close to a deal that will call for a home-and-home series starting in 2009-2010.
