One of the great things that UConn Huskies women’s basketball head coach does is makes sure that his seniors get a chance to play in their home state before graduating. This time it was Maya Moore’s turn to play in front of her friends and family in Atlanta, GA.
While the Huskies got off to a slow start, they got things going with a big run as usual to help themselves to a 71-51 win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in front of 7,325 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum on Sunday afternoon. It was a women’s basketball record crowd for the Yellow Jackets.
With the win, the Huskies move to 3-0 on the young season while Georgia Tech falls to 3-2. It’s also the 81st straight win for the Huskies and that ties Division III Washington University’s 81-game women’s basketball record winning streak that spanned from 1998-2001. the next win would give the Huskies the record at any level of women’s basketball.
Moore got off to a slow start in front her friends and family but finished the afternoon with a game-high 30 points, a team-high eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots. Freshman Bria Hartley was the only other member of the Huskies in double-digits with 15 points. She also added three assists and two steals.
Tiffany Hayes chipped in with nine points, six assists and three steals while Kelly Faris had five points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Tyuanna Marshall led the way for the Yellow Jackets with 24 points and added six rebounds. Alex Montgomery had 15 points and eight rebounds while Sasha Goodlett paced them with nine rebounds to go along with eight points. Metra Walthour had three points, four assists and a game-high five rebounds.
UConn got out to an early 11-5 lead before the Yellow Jackets responded with a 6-0 run. But then the machine that is UConn took over with a 14-0 run to take control of the game. In fact, the Huskies closed out the first half on a 31-12 run to take a 41-23 lead at the half.
The Huskies got their lead up to 20 points at 47-27 early in the second half before they saw Georgia Tech narrow that gap to 11 points behind an 11-2 run. They would get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way as UConn was just too much for them.
We’ve all gotten used to UConn blowing teams out but we know this is a different team. They are a young team and it does show at times but Moore knows when she needs to step and take over. You can just hope that others follow suit and not stand around watching her play. They will get better over time and that could prove scary to teams trying to knock the Huskies off their perch at the top.
The Huskies are off until Friday when they’ll host the World Vision Classic at Gampel Pavilion. The Huskies will play three games in three days in a round robin format. They’ll take on Howard, Lehigh and LSU over the weekend. The first game for UConn will be Friday night against Howard at 7:30 p.m. and it will be televised locally on CPTV.
If you’re on the home page, hit the read more button below to keep reading.
Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 11.21.10 box score
The starters for UConn were Bria Hartley, Tiffany Hayes, Kelly Faris, Maya Moore and Stefanie Dolson.
UConn is 28-9 in road openers and has won 17 of their last 18.
They have won their last 29 games in the month of November.
The Huskies are 100-9 in their last 109 road games.
The 81 straight wins ties Division III Washington University (1998-2001) for the most at any level of women’s basketball.
UConn shot 46.3% (31-of-67) from the floor while Tech shot 34.5% (19-of-55).
The Huskies had 23 assists on their 31 made baskets.
UConn was only 3-of-23 (13%) from three-point land. Georgia Tech was only 1-of-10 (10%).
The Huskies only got to the charity strip ten times making six of them (60%).
For the first time during the 81 game winning streak, the Huskies were outrebounded. Georgia Tech held a 40-38 advantage. The last time UConn didn’t hold the rebounding edge was in their last loss to Stanford during the Final Four in 2007.
UConn turned 24 Georgia Tech turnovers into 23 points. The Yellow Jackets turned 19 Huskies turnovers into 11 points.
The Huskies outscored Tech in the paint 50-20 and on the fast break 20-5.
Georgia Tech had 13 second chance points to UConn’s 12.
Photo credits: AP Photo, AP Photo
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
