.jpeg)
GO UCONN!!!!!
No. 5 UConn Huskies No. 21 Villanova Wildcats
63 58
Talk about Deja Vu all over again. Villanova come to play UConn on their home court and has a lead over the Huskies heading into the fourth quarter. Last year it was a big 17 point lead for the Wildcats and UConn was only able to close to 3 points before losing. This year, after Nova extended their lead to 6 points, 51-46, two minutes into the second half on a Maddy Siegrist jumper, UConn battled tough and outscored Villanova 9-1 to take a 55-52 lead.
Nova wouldn't go away and using a traditional 3 point play by Lucy Olsen to tie the game up with 3 minutes remaining in the game. A bad foul by Lou. Dorka Juhasz his a HUGE three pointer with 1:44 left. After a miss by Nova's Dalce, Edwards was fouls and made two free throws with 51 seconds left to take a 5 point lead. Olsen missed a jumper and Edwards rebounded the miss. UConn then called a timeout. 31 second left. UConn inbounding. Safe, right? Not in this game. After the timeout, Edwards turned the ball over. Sigh....
Olsen hit a three pointer with 22 seconds left to cut UConn's lead to 2 points, 60-58 with 21 seconds left. With 10 second left, Edwards was fouled and hit the first. I'm feeling pretty good at this point. But of course, she missed the second and Villanova had one last chance to tie. They got the ball to who they wanted in Maddy Siegrist but great defense by Lou, who got her hand in the shot, prevented any chance of tying the game. The ball went out of bound, but Nova badly missed one last three point shot, Edwards rebounded, was fouled and hit the two foul shots for the final margin 63-58.
Once again this UConn team showed true grit in beating an inspired Villanova team.
Fortunately for UConn they are not a 2 or 3 person team. In any game you have all 5 starters that can carry a team.
The Huskies were carried by Griffin, who scored 19 points on 6-11 from the field and 7-9 from the foul line. She added rebounds.
Juhasz was great as well with 16 points on 6-10 shooting and 2-4 on threes. She had 7 rebounds.
The only other double digit scorer was Edwards but she did her damage at the foul like going 5-6 in the last couple of minutes of the game.
Lou had her worse game of the season only scoring 6 points on a horrid 2-13 from the field and 0-3 on three pointers.
Nika didn't have her usual game but she was 4-6 from the field and 1-1 on threes for 9 points and she added 3 assists and 3 steals.
Patterson played 10 minutes giving Griffin 4 minutes off and Lou 2 minutes. Edwards, Muhl and Juhasz played 40 minutes each. Wow.
I'll tell you, this team is no doubt the best conditioned team in the country. And you can bet that will make a difference when you have 3 games in a row in the BE tournament and then the two games in three days for 3 weekends in the NCAA tournament.
Some observations.
The team shot 42.9% from the field well below their averge on the season. However, you take away Lou's 2-13 and the rest of the team shot 52.8% pretty much right on their average.
The Huskies had only 7 assists on the game. A great job by the Nova defense not giving the Huskies good passing lanes.
It was a free throw exhibition by both teams. Nova was 10-11 and UConn was 18-21.
While they are the best conditioned team in the country, they were certainly mentally and physically fatigued in this game. Geno said after the first quarter it was the first time the team looked tired to him.
Yet they played great defense. Nova shot only 35.5% from the field, and 19% on threes.
I'm happy UConn won and I'm happy that Nova gave them a tough game. Good for the Big East.
Maddy Siegrist had a good game with 25 points and 8 rebounds, but she took 29 shots and only made 9 and was 1-6 on threes.
Lucy Olsen was the best player on the court for Nova. Sh had 19 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. A terrific stat line!
Enjoy the videos and interviews!!
Geno Post Game Interview
Dorka, Aaliyay, Aubrey Post Game Interview
Maddy Siegrist, Coach Dillon Post game Interview
Game Highlights
Full Game Replay
*************************************************
Video clip of UConn player of interest Sarah Strong. Sarah passes, hits the three pointers, and is more than a force underneath! She also has nice soft hands when receiving passes. Sarah is number 21.
************************************************
GAMES
Upset noted with red **
**********************************
Straight from the Dog
Ok, tough game, but some great news from Geno on Caroline.
Talking about her road to recovery she has had 4-5 days in a row where her workouts were complete and very little negative response to it. So she is getting close. But he doesn't want to jinx it. I totally get that. He then added while counting on his fingers that she could be back in 2-5 days. I have a feeling we might see her for a few minutes against Providence so she can play some against South Carolina. But I will stop talking about it. I don't want to jinx it either.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/O6OPD7RM7NFR3EBTJNTRDSLTWI.JPG)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/WUIU5QEU4ZEBNL6NBS7ZRXV5SE.JPG)
And right back at you by Maddy!
********************************************************
What a crazy Sunday in WCBB. There were a total of 7 upsets in the Top 25. And UConn only won by 5, South Carolina by 12, Stanford by 8. Talk about parity.
Cameron Brink had a triple double in their win over Oregon. She had 16 points 11 rebounds and 10 blocks. She is a terrific player.
No.2 (not for long) Ohio State just lost their third straight game, 73-65 to unranked Nebraska. This make me appreciate the "no consecutive losses" streak by UConn. It should be interesting to see how far they actually drop. Certainly out of the Top 10.
No. 7 Notre Dame lost their first game without their sparkplug and team leader Dara Mabrey 69-65 to No. 20 North Carolina State. Diamond Miller led the Wolfpack with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. I just love when the Irish lose. Not as much as Tennessee, but it's a close second!
At least UConn's close game was against a very good Villanova team. South Carolina and Stanford were different stories.
Stanford beat an unranked 14-7 Oregon team using a 14-7 first quarter. Love numbers. And as I mentioned Brink had a triple double. As a team they shot 37% from the field and 30% on threes. And only 4-8 from the free throw line. Like another top ranked team, their poor shooting is going to end their season sometime in the Tournament.
South Carolina beat an unranked 16-6 Alabama team 65-52. Yes it was a 13 point win, but it was closer than that for most of the game. Boston had a great game with 16 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. And Brea Hall came off the bench for 18 points hitting 4-8 threes, something that SC has been missing. But they only shot 39% from the field and 34% on threes. And 5-9 on free throws. This Alabama team lost to Tennessee by 14 points and to LSU by 38 points. A very unimpressive win.
********************************************************
UCONN LINKS
Several links are pay sites. Sorry!
***************************
Message Boards
UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!!
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else
I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:
No comments:
Post a Comment