The UConn Huskies had five players in double figures as they easily beat a scrappy San Diego State Aztecs team 85-53 in UConn’s first official road game of the season late Friday night. The games in the Paradise Jam were counted as neutral court games.
The game was a homecoming game for Charde Houston, who hails from the San Diego area. She scored 6 points and pulled down 5 rebounds in front of her hometown fans.
UConn (9-0) was led by Renee Montgomery who had 19 points. Brittany Hunter had 14 points in just 13 minutes while Mel Thomas had 13 points. Maya Moore and Tina Charles rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 12 points. Charles also had 11 rebounds for her 15th career double-double.
The Aztecs (8-2) were led by Paris Johnson’s 14 points. Coco Davis added 8 points while Jene Morris and Kate Eveland each chipped in 6 points in a losing effort.
UConn will head home for the holidays and return back to action on Saturday December 29th at the XL Center (formerly the Hartford Civic Center) against the University of Hartford. Tipoff is at 7 PM and the game will be on CPTV locally.
Notes and Observations:
The starting five was Renee Montgomery, Mel Thomas, Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Brittany Hunter.
UConn announced today that Kalana Greene’s ACL and LCL surgery was a success and will rehab for the next 6-8 months. She should be back in time for preseason practice in September.
San Diego State is the second Mountain West team UConn has played this year. They beat BYU 80-34 back on November 29th.
Charles and Moore have scored in double figures in all of UConn’s games this year.
Thomas’ 3-pointer tonight moved her into a tie for 4th place in career 3’s made with Sue Bird and University of Hartford head coach Jen Rizzotti at 207.
Moore pulled down 7 boards and Hunter had 6 as well. Moore also had a team-high 6 assists.
UConn outrebounded the Aztecs 53-25.
UConn committed an uncharacteristic 28 turnovers tonight which the Aztecs turned into 20 points. UConn had 25 points off of 23 SDSU turnovers.
UConn shot 33-of-61 (54.1%) from the field while holding the Aztecs to 31.7% (20-of-63) shooting.
UConn’s free throw percentage was a little better than their season average (59.4%) as they were 14-of-20 (70%).
The Huskies scored 42 of their 85 points in the paint.
Everyone on the roster with the exception of Greene (for obvious reasons) saw action in the game tonight.
