No. 1 UConn Huskies Louisiana State
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Post Game report
Video Highlights from UConn Huskies coming soon
UConn started Nurse, Jefferson, Tuck, Collier and Samuelson who is started in Stewarts spot. Wow...two freshman in the starting lineup. Not since Stewart and Jefferson
UConn was a little off on offense, not shooting very well, you can understand that with the long layoff and missing Stewart. But the defense was terrific. They put on full court pressure early and often, forcing LSU to take shots late in in the clock. Fantastic effort by every player. Collier was all over the court, crashing the offensive boards and playing some tough defense blocking 3 shots in the first quarter. Nurse played one of her better quarters other than missing an easy basket after an amazing play by Jefferson keeping the ball alive. UConn did manage to score 18 points but they held LSU to only six, the lowest scoring quarter for any opponent this season.
The second quarter was more of the same. UConn's defense was out of this world. As I said in my pregame report, LSU will struggle to score. They just don't have the shooters to do any damage. Williams came in and was terrific. Her left handed drive and shot off the glass was something else. Gabby and Nurse were terrors at the top of the defense and Collier and Tuck were anchors in the paint. Ekmark missed a defensive assignment and Geno went ballistic. It's a perfect example of why Geno is the best coach in the country. He expects every player to do the right things. And he was right, of course. Ekmark played 2 minutes and with her at the top of the key instead of Nurse, LSU score four points, as much as they had the other 8 minutes of the quarter. UConn led at the half, 39-14. A fantastic defensive effort without it's best post defender.
At the half Geno was asked how his team adjusted to not having Stewart there. He said pretty much what I have said.
"The defense was terrific but the offense was a little out of sync. Kinda in between, should be pass, should be shoot. Not a lot of flow to the offense. I think we need to get a little more inside-outside, dribble penetration. We're standing around a lot. We have to take care of that at halftime".
Ok...he said it a lot better than I did.
This half was all about defense and dominating the paint. UConn forced 15 turnovers and turned them into 18 points. Conversely, UConn did a nice job taking care of the ball with only 4 turnovers that turned into 2 points for LSU. UConn also outscored them in the paint 22-6.
UConn started the third quarter a little slowly, with only a wide open three pointer by Tuck being the only score after three minutes of play. But quickly after that, UConn made LSU pay for packing in their zone with a three pointer by Nurse and two three pointers by Jefferson. That opened up the paint for a Tuck post move and UConn had a 50-16 lead, outscoring LSU 11-2 after 4 minutes into the 3rd quarter. At that point LSU called a time out.
After the TO, LSU hit a jumper and then stole the ball for a layup. But that rally was short lived. Gabby hit an alley oop on the inbounds and the rout continued. Williams worked her way into double figures with an offensive put back. Samuelson turned it on by running the floor and driving to the basket. She also hit a three. Katie Lou appeared to roll her ankle and after a few minutes more on the floor, was replaced by Ekmark. LSU started to hit a few shots and the third quarter ended with a 24-12 UConn advantage and a 63-26 lead for the Huskies.
UConn continued it's domination in the 4th quarter. Ekmark started in place of Samuelson and played so much better. She hit a three, made a great entry pass to Williams and played much better defense. She really responded to the tongue lashing from Geno. UConn stretched the lead to 77-33 with 5 minutes left when on a rebounding effort under the LSU basket, Bethel basically threw Williams down to the ground where she laid there for a few minutes. She finally got up a little woozy but ok enough to walk off the court. On replay, you could see it was a cheap shot. An intentional play to try to hurt someone. The officials looked at the play on replay and determined what we all saw was what happened. A flagrant one foul was call and it was the right call. Let me tell you, Gabby could have been really hurt. UConn continued to roll and by the time Lawlor and Pulido entered the game, UConn was up 82-38 with two minutes remaining in the game. I loved how Pulido went right up to Ekmark to get the assignments straight and then on the offensive end, UConn passed the ball around until Pulido hit a nice three pointer from the corner on a feed from her partner in crime Lawlor, It was beautiful. Even Geno had to smile at that one. UConn closed out their scoring with Lawlor hitting a free throw. UConn won this contest 86-40 in a terrific defensive effort. Hmmmm...I believe I called a 45+ point win.
Geno in his post game interview said - "Moriah was exactly what you want your seniors to be. She made big shots, made big plays defensively, her and Tuck. They are the three that will have to do it, and tonight we were down to two of them. Both of them were great but especially Moriah in the second half. It's not easy playing without someone you depend on for so much. Our defense was great and the offense was more fluid in the second half. The big thing is to play great defense every night and if you make shots, great, but if you don't at least you are going to give yourself a chance to win. We kinda pride ourselves in our defense and tonight was no different."
Game Stats and Box Score
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Game Quotes From Geno
"I thought defensively we were pretty good. I think it took us a while offensively to get into any kind of a rhythm. You know taking Stewart out of the lineup is like taking four players out. She is one of our best inside players, our best high post player against the zone, our best three point shooter, and one of our best passers. All of the sudden things change and we can't possibly look the same without her in the lineup."
"I think that's what Kia does. She is aggressive in everything she does and she is not going change her style of play with Stewart out."
“It wasn’t real bad so let’s see what we could do, let’s get her ready for Monday at shoot around. She tried to talk Rosemary into letting her play and Rosemary said no. We have another week, so I would expect that she would be back to normal when UConn plays Maryland in the Maggie Dixon Classic on Dec. 28.”
Game Quotes from Coach Nikki Fargas
"Moriah Jefferson is one of the smartest defenders out there. I thought it would be best putting her on Deemer, with the defensive style that Moriah plays and how she doesn't take a position off. [Moriah] took the defensive challenge of really shutting down our best player. I think that is where we got to be more creative and with play action, whether we are playing Deemer off ball screens, playing off of hand-offs. We tried to do some of that tonight."
"I think you have a team that has depth in the sense of leadership. Moriah Jefferson picked it up, she definitely lead the attack and you knew that when one man goes down the rest of the team is going to respond and that's what you had, you had a team that responded with their best player being out."
"I think you have to pull out the possessions where we did some good things. Pull out the possessions where we did get some looks and didn't connect. Defensively there were some opportunities for us to have them go one and done and we gave up some offensive rebounds. There are some good possessions that we can build off of. This is only going to help us prepare for SEC play."
Player Evaluations
Jefferson had a great game. In 33 minutes, she scored 17 points, had 4 rebounds, 7 assists and only 2 rebounds. She also had 4 steals and was constantly harassing the LSU players with her quick hands and feet. She showed her senior leadership early, pushing and cajoling her teammates into playing harder. What a great teammate.
"Of course, we can't wait for Stewie to get back. But if she can't be out there, it's good to know we have people who can step up and fill the role."
Morgan Tuck
Another terrific game by Tuck. She made some great plays early as if she was telling the teams "I got this, don't worry". In her 29 minutes, she scored 14 points on 6-10 shooting, going 2-4 on three's. She is now shooting 38% on threes.
Take a look at this picture of Nurse and you can see that UConn has nothing to worry about leadership after Stewart and Jefferson graduate. She was terrific against LSU. In 33 minutes she scored 11 points, handed out 8 assists and 5 steals. And only 1 turnover. Her defense was incredible. I wish for her sake she would make a few more threes. 1-5 doesn't cut it.
Napheesa Collier
“I think it was good for us to see that any of us can get hurt at any time we can still win without one of our best players.”
"I guess I was just in the right place at the right time [for the blocks]."
Gabby Williams
Gabby had a terrific game off the bench. Her athletic moves were a joy to watch. In 22 minutes, she scored 13 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. She was totally disruptive at the top of the defense.
Katie Lou Samuelson
Katie Lou started out slow, missing her first 3 three-pointers. But she did get to the line, making 5-6 from the free throw line. Her third quarter was terrific before turning her ankle on a drive to the basket. She ended up with going 3-6 from the field and 1-4 from beyond the arc. She scored 9 points added 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Overall in 32 minutes she scored 14 points, had 5 rebounds and 5 assists. I thought she played good but not great defense. Still, a terrific overall game.
"We had a first group out there and he put me out there, so I kind of figured from there that I would be starting. It is not different than if you are coming off the bench. You still have to contribute somehow, so I started.”
"I'm happy I had the five assists because I feel like I am a pretty good passer."
Courtney Ekmark
Wow, did Geno ever give it to Courtney when she messed up a defensive assignment late in the first half. He was livid. He just can't stand when players make a mistake that they drill into the players day after day. The great news was that she played a terrific second half with 6 points and 2 rebounds on 2-3 shooting and 1-2 on threes in her 11 minutes.
Tierney Lawlor
She is not longer Miss Perfect. She missed a free throw.
Brianna Pulido
Boy, did I enjoy her few minutes and clearly so did Geno. Her three point shot on a pass from Lawlor could not have been executed better even if run by the starters. Fantastic!!
OUT FOR THE GAME
Breanna Stewart, Saniya Chong, Natalie Butler
Final Thoughts
- I have to mention Ekmark again. It takes a special kind of kid that can bounce back from Geno yelling at her like that to play so solidly in the second half. She is exactly the kind of kid that Geno tries to recruit. I'll be pulling even harder for her to succeed.
- We have a week before the next game against No. 6 Maryland, who has played some horrific competition in the previous 4 games. Brenda Freese had a lot to say about how ready they are for UConn. "We're ready now...we're going into UConn...we know what to expect." I'll let you know as soon as I can get the game preview completed what I think. I'm pretty sure I won't agree with her.
To all my Christian friends, have a very Merry Christmas!!!!!
- We have a week before the next game against No. 6 Maryland, who has played some horrific competition in the previous 4 games. Brenda Freese had a lot to say about how ready they are for UConn. "We're ready now...we're going into UConn...we know what to expect." I'll let you know as soon as I can get the game preview completed what I think. I'm pretty sure I won't agree with her.
To all my Christian friends, have a very Merry Christmas!!!!!
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| When Geno talks everyone listens |
Without Stewies being out, Courtney would never have had a chance to show her mettle in the second half.
ReplyDeleteCollier and kls started not williams.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I'll fix it.
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