New season, new faces, even an old one is back for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team. And as most of the state of Connecticut expects them to do, it was another UConn win on Sunday afternoon at Gampel Pavilion.
Bria Hartley led the way for the Huskies (1-0) with 17 points as they easily took care of business in a 77-37 win over the Holy Cross Crusaders in front of a small crowd of 6,548 fans.
Hartley also added six assists but did have five turnovers. Tiffany Hayes added 16 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks while Stefanie Dolson chipped in with 12 points and seven rebounds.
Caroline Doty returned to action for the first time since the 2010 NCAA Championship game and had nine points and five rebounds. Heather Buck had a nice game off the bench with six points and six rebounds.
Amy Lepley, Brisje Malone and Alex Smith all had eight points to lead Holy Cross (0-2). Lepley led the Crusaders with five rebounds with four others adding four.
They were without their top freshman Emily Parker who scored 17 points in their season opening loss to Yale. Parker tore her ACL in March and was just cleared to play on Thursday before their opener. Holy Cross head coach Bill Gibbons didn’t want her to play two games in three days especially against the quickness of the Huskies.
As usually is the case for most teams who are playing against the UConn women, this one was pretty much over right at the start.
The Huskies started out the game with a 9-0 run and followed that up with a 23-6 run to open up a 26 point lead. Holy Cross would get it down to 21 points at halftime (38-17) but the Huskies made sure in the second half that there would be no come back for the Crusaders.
They weren’t perfect today but they’ll need to be sooner rather than later. After their game on Monday, they’ll have six days to prepare for the No. 5 Stanford Cardinal. They’ll need to work on limiting their mistakes within the offense and on defense.
I was impressed with the play of Buck off the bench. If Dolson ever gets in foul trouble, the Huskies aren’t as deep in the front court with Buck and freshman Moriah Jefferson. But Buck has the experience and can show at times she can play. She’ll just need to build off of this game and go foward as the season goes along.
It’s a quick turnaround for the Huskies as they’ll be back in action on Monday night when the Pacific Tigers come to Gampel. Tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast locally on CPTV in Connecticut.
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Notes and musings:
Holy Cross Crusaders @ UConn Huskies 11.13.11 box score
Here are the postgame quotes from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma and Holy Cross head coach Bill Gibbons.
The starters for the Huskies were Bria Hartley, Caroline Doty, Tiffany Hayes, Kelly Faris and Stefanie Dolson.
UConn shot 45.2% (28-62) from the floor. Holy Cross shot 23.2% (17-56).
The Huskies had 19 points on their 28 made baskets.
UConn was 9-of-24 (37.5%) from three point land while the Crusaders were just 3-of-15 (20%).
The Huskies were 12-of-17 (70.6%) from the free throw line.
UConn dominated the boards outrebounding Holy Cross 49-32.
Freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had a rough shooting debut as she was just 3-of-12 from the floor. She ended up with seven points and seven rebounds.
Ten of the 11 Huskies who played scored. Sophomore Michaela Johnson was the only Husky not to put the ball in the basket.
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Photo credit: AP Photo
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