The No. 1 UConn Huskies women’s basketball team came into tonight’s game with West Virginia leading the country in scoring offense with 88.4 points a game. The Mountaineers came into tonight’s game as the 5th best scoring defense giving up just 52.3 points a game. So something had to give.
Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, it was their defense as Renee Montgomery returned to her home state to score 28 points and add 5 assists to lead the Huskies to an 85-55 win in front of 3,167 at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, WV.
The win for the Huskies improves their record to 15-0 (2-0 Big East) and will keep them atop the polls when they come out on Monday (AP) and Tuesday (USA Today/Coaches). The Mountaineers fall to 10-5 (0-3). It was also the 23rd consecutive regular season win for UConn.
Maya Moore had her 6th double-double of the season and the 17th of her career with 16 points and 10 rebounds while freshman Tiffany Hayes had 10 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Caroline Doty’s slump from 3-point land (0-4) continued but she did finish with 8 points as did Tina Charles who had 8 points and 9 rebounds.
West Virginia was led by Takisha Granberry who had 17 points. Liz Repella added 15 points and 5 rebounds while Sarah Miles chipped in with 14 points for Mike Carey’s squad.
The Huskies started out the game on fire as they made 7-of-8 shots and took a 23-5 lead. Then their play turned a little sloppy as the Mountaineers were able to cut the lead to 9 at 29-20. The Huskies responded though with a 9-0 run to take permanent control of the game as they took a 47-30 lead into the locker room.
It was more of the same in the second half as the Huskies gradually wore down the Mountaineers, who had just 9 players.
The Huskies return home to Gampel Pavilion, a place they haven’t played at since December 3rd, when they will host the DePaul Blue Demons at 7:30 PM. The game will be televised locally on CPTV.
Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ West Virginia Mountaineers 1.10.09 box score
The starters were the usual suspects of Renne Montgomery, Caroline Doty, Kalana Greene, Maya Moore and Tina Charles.
Renee Montgomery’s 28 points moved her into 10th place all-time at UConn with 1,603. She joins Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph as the only Huskies to be in the top 10 of points, assists and steals.
The Huskies are now 20-1 against the Mountaineers all-time.
UConn starts a season 15-0 for the second consecutive year.
UConn extends its winning steak against non-ranked opponents to 101 straight.
Maya Moore’s 16 points marked her 16th consecutive game with double-figure points and her 51st in 53 career games.
UConn shot 53.6% (30-56) while West Virginia shot 36.1% (22-61).
The Huskies had 15 assists on their 30 made baskets while the Mountaineers had just 4 assists in the game.
UConn won the battle of the boards 43-31 and outscored West Virginia 42-18 in the paint.
The Huskies committed 15 turnovers while the Mountaineers had 17.
UConn had 12 fastbreak points to just 2 for West Virginia.
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