Tina Charles led three UConn Huskies in double figures as they easily took care of the of the South Carolina Gamecocks 97-39 in their first game in eleven days as they came back from final exams.
Charles had 23 points and 10 rebounds for yet another double-double. Ketia Swainer added a career-high 15 points while Maya Moore had 10 points and pulled down 8 boards to round out the Huskies in double figures. Mel Thomas and Renee Montgomery both had 8 points as well for UConn.
The Gamecocks (7-3) were led by Illona Burgrova who had 11 points. Demetress Adams had 9 points before she fouled out. Brionna Dickerson added 7 points on just 3-of-22 shooting as well.
UConn could be without the services of Kalana Greene for the rest of the season as she left the game with what UConn officials called a “severe right knee injury”. I am not going to speculate on the severity of her injury but I cringed when I saw the replay because I know that feeling all too well (I have torn my right ACL 2 times). You could definitely see her knee give out as she went in for contested layup. Hopefully the injury isn’t too severe and we here at SOX & Dawgs wish her the best.
UConn started out the first half shooting 7-of-21 while South Carolina was just 2-of-12 to start the game. The Gamecocks were down 8 points at 22-14 but UConn went on a 21-5 run to take a 43-19 lead into the locker room at the half.
Head coach Geno Auriemma didn’t come out to the bench for the second half until the first timeout as he was probably in the trainer’s room with Greene. More of the same for the Huskies in the second half as they totally dominated both sides of the ball. They held the ‘Cocks to one field goal over the last 11 minutes of the game.
The Huskies (8-0) will leave tomorrow morning for San Diego as they will take on San Diego State on Friday night at 11 pm ET in Charde Houston’s return home. This is something Geno usually tries to do for all of his players in their careers at UConn. The game will be televised by CPTV.
Notes and Observations:
The starters were Renee Montgomery, Mel Thomas, Kalana Greene, Tina Charles and Brittany Hunter.
Maya Moore’s high school teammate, Jordan Jones, was a starting guard for the Gamecocks tonight. They went 62-1 in their final two years of high school. Their only loss was to Christ of King in NY, which featured UConn’s Lorin Dixon and Tina Charles.
Charles has scored in double figures in every game this season.
UConn came into the game ranked 323rd in the country in free throw shooting at 55%. There are only 326 teams in Division I folks. They were a lot better tonight as they were 15 of 17 (88.2%). That might move them up to like 320th.
The Gamecocks had 6 field goals and 14 turnovers in the first half. They finished the game with 13 field goals and 23 turnovers in the game.
The Huskies held the Gamecocks to 21% (13-of-62) from the floor. The last team to shoot that low against UConn was Georgetown back in February of 2006.
UConn shot 39-of-81 (48.1%) in the game. They had 27 assists on the 39 baskets.
The Huskies got 48 points from their bench while the Gamecocks only had 7.
Ketia Swanier passed Ashley Battle for 9th place on the all-time steals list at UConn with her 192nd tonight.
UConn was only 4-of-22 from 3-point land tonight so they will need to improve on that.
