Tina Charles led three UConn Huskies in double figures as they easily dispatched of the Virginia Lady Cavaliers 75-45 at the Hartford Civic Center. Charles scored 18 points on 8 of 9 shooting and pulled down 6 rebounds for the Huskies.
Brittany Hunter scored 14 points in just 14 minutes and Maya Moore rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 12 points. Mel Thomas added 7 points and scored her 1,000th point of her illustrious career when she hit a foul line jumper with 17:17 to go in the second half. She is the 29th person in UConn history to score 1,000 points in their careers.
Aisha Mohammed scored 13 points and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to lead the Lady Cavaliers. Monica Wright added 10 points as well.
UConn (7-0) started out the first half on a 16-4 run with Charles and Hunter leading the way for the Huskies with 6 points each. They continued that run as they went into the locker room with a 44-22 lead.
More of the same in the second half as the Lady Cavaliers (6-4) couldn’t keep up with the Huskies. Obviously the highlight of the second half was when Thomas scored her 1,000th point. She received a standing ovation from the crowd when there was a break in the action.
The game featured a matchup of Geno Auriemma versus his mentor, Deb Ryan. Auriemma was an assistant under Ryan from 1981-85 at Virginia before he took the UConn job.
The Huskies are now off for 11 days as they break for final exams. They return to the Gampel Pavilion court on December 17th to face South Carolina.
Notes and Observations:
The starters were Renee Montgomery, Mel Thomas, Kalana Greene, Brittany Hunter and Tina Charles.
Charde Houston really seems to have fallen into Geno’s doghouse as she played only 5 minutes tonight scoring 4 points.
Time for my daily rant on free throws. UConn was awful at the free throw line tonight as they were 1 of 12 in the first half and 8 of 18 (44.4%) in the game.
Their 3-point shooting wasn’t any better as they only hit 1 of 12 (8.3%).
UConn did shoot well from the floor as they hit 57.9% (33 of 57) while holding Virginia to 30% (18 of 60).
They had 21 assists on those 33 baskets with Thomas, Greene and Montgomery all chipping in with four each.
UConn blocked 13 shots in the game with Charles and Greene leading the way with 3 each.
UConn forced Virginia into 24 turnovers, converting those in 26 points. The Huskies did commit 16 of their own.
