Mel Thomas’ hot shooting in the first half led the #1 UConn Huskies to an 82-33 win over the Army Black Knights in front of 10,168 at the XL Center on Monday.
Thomas led 4 Huskies in double figures with 19 points, all of those came in the first half. She was 5-of-8 from 3-point range in the game. Renee Montgomery added 12 points and 3 assists while Maya Moore added 11 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocked shots. Charde Houston had arguably her best game of the year as she rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 10 points.
Cara Enright led the Black Knights (6-6) with 7 points. Alex McGuire had 6 points and Erin Anthony scored 4 points and pulled down a game-high 9 rebounds.
UConn (11-0) started off the game with a 17-3 run. The Black Knights did get back into the game though as they were able to score the next 8 points. However that would be as close as they would get in the game as the Huskies went on a 14-2 run. Army was held scoreless the last 6:13 of the first half as the Huskies went into the locker room with a 47-15 halftime lead.
It was more of the same in the second half for the Huskies. Most of the starting five for the Huskies spent the last 12-15 minutes of the half on the bench as the reserves came in and did their thing. Kaili McLaren and Lorin Dixon led the bench brigade with 6 points each.
UConn will begin Big East play on Thursday when they head down to visit Geno Auriemma’s old pal Harry Perretta and his Villanova Wildcats squad. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 PM and the game can be seen on CPTV.
Notes and Observations:
The starters were Renee Montgomery, Mel Thomas, Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Charde Houston.
Army is the second Patriot League team the Huskies have faced this season. They beat Holy Cross 91-36 back on November 14th.
UConn has now beaten 9 of their 11 opponents by more than 30 points. It was also the 9th time they have held an opponent under 50 points. Only Stanford (54) and San Diego State (53) have scored over 50 against the Huskies.
Brittany Hunter didn’t play in the game due to tweaking her knee in the Huskies last game.
Mel Thomas moved into fourth place all-time at UConn on the career 3-pointers made list with 5 in the game. She now has 212. She has a ways to go to catch Wendy Davis for the third spot overall at 279.
Moore extended her double figures scoring streak to 11 games.
With the exception of Hunter and Kalana Greene, all the Huskies played over 10 minutes in the game. Jacquie Fernandes was the only one not to play 10 minutes as she played 9. She was also the only Husky without a point.
UConn shot 53.5% (32-60) from the floor while holding Army to 28% (14-50).
UConn had 22 assists on those 32 made baskets led Moore’s 6 assists.
The Huskies forced 24 turnovers and turned those into 34 points. UConn had 14 turnovers which Army converted into only 7 points.
UConn’s bench outscored Army 24-11.
UConn was 11-of 17 (64.7%) from the free throw line. That’s a little better than they have been lately but still not good enough.
The Huskies outrebounded the Black Knights 40-28.
UConn is now 11-0 on New Year’s Eve.
