For the fifth time in the history of UConn Huskies women’s basketball, they have finished undefeated in the regular season as they beat a tough Rutgers Scarlet Knights squad 69-59 at the RAC in Piscataway, NJ. It’s the first time since the 2002-03 season that the Huskies have finished the season undefeated.
No. 1 UConn finishes up 30-0 (16-0 Big East) and will have a double-bye in the Big East Tournament that gets underway on March 6th. Rutgers ends the regular season at 18-11 (9-7) and will be the 7th seed and has a first round bye.
Renee Montgomery paced the Huskies with 23 points and 5 assists. Tina Charles added 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 4 blocks while Maya Moore had 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Kalana Greene chipped in with 10 points.
Rutgers was led by Kia Vaughn who had 24 points to go along with 7 rebounds. Epiphanny Prince added 11 points and 4 steals while Heather Zurich had 10. Khadijah Rushdan had a game-high 9 rebounds for the Scarlet Knights.
Things got a little dicey for the Huskies in the second half. They took a 36-20 lead into the locker room and were up 43-26 when things took a change for the worse. Rutgers took advantage of four UConn turnovers and went on a 12-4 run to cut the lead to 9.
The Huskies recovered though to get the lead back up to 16 points as they went on a 7-0 run started by a Montgomery three pointer. Rutgers didn’t go lightly though as they cut the lead down to 6 points at 65-59 but the Huskies hit their free throws to finish their season undefeated.
Montgomery got the Huskies off to a hot start as she hit three 3-pointers and helped UConn to a 21-5 lead. Rutgers battled back though using an 11-2 run to cut the lead down to 7 points. The Huskies pushed the lead back to double-digits with a 6-0 run on their way to a 17-point lead at the half.
While the Huskies may have finshed the regular season with a perfect record, they were far from perfect tonight. It was a good test but they will need to find a way to take better care of the ball when facing pressure.
As stated above, the Huskies will have a double-bye and start the Big East Tournament on Sunday in the quarterfinals at 2 PM. Their opponent won’t be known until play is over on Saturday.
Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ Rutgers Scarlet Knights 3.2.09 women’s basketball box score
The starters were Renee Montgomery, Tiffany Hayes, Kalana Greene, Maya Moore and Tina Charles.
This was the 7th time the Huskies have run the tables in the Big East.
This is the first time a team has gone through the season beating everyone by at least 10 points.
This is the 4th straight 30 win season for the Huskies and the 15th in the last 17 years. The only two season they didn’t do it were in 1998-99 and 2004-05.
UConn shot 55.0% (22-of-40) from the floor while the Scarlet Knights shot 36.1% (22-of-61).
The Huskies had 11 assists on their 22 made baskets.
UConn was outrebounded 30-27.
Good night for the Huskies from the free throw line as they were 17-of-20 (85.0%).
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