Sooner or later, the impressive winning streak put together by the No. 1 UConn Huskies women’s basketball team will have to come to an end. But thanks to Maya Moore and Bria Hartley, it wouldn’t happen on Tuesday night with the No. 2 Baylor Bears in town.
Moore had a game-high 30 points and Hartley hit some clutch shots down the stretch to help the Huskies to a 65-64 win over the No. 2 Bears in front of 12,628 and a nationally televised audience on ESPN2 at the XL Center in the State Farm Tip-Off Classic.
The Huskies improve to 2-0 on the young season while the Bears fall to 3-1. UConn’s winning streak is now up to 80 games.
With her team trailing 58-55 and 3:56 to go in the game, Hartley hit a three-pointer to tie the game up. After the media timeout, Brittney Griner hit a jumper to put the Bears back out front by two. The Huskies would tie it when Hartley hit a layup off of a missed shot by Moore.
After Heather Buck drew Griner’s fourth foul, the Huskies brought the ball down the floor and got another three from Hartley with 2:09 left to take the lead for good. The Bears got it to within a point on a Kimetria Hayden layup but Moore put the lead back up to three points when she nailed a jumper.
Melissa Jones made a layup for Baylor with 36 seconds to go and Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey called a timeout. Everyone expected the Bears to foul the Huskies and extend the game but they didn’t. The Huskies held onto the ball until the eight second mark when Hartley went in for a layup only to have Griner swat it out of bounds.
With two seconds left on the shot clock, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma called timeout to set up a play. When they came out of the timeout and got set on the floor, Baylor called their final timeout. This would end up costing them as Moore missed the shot and Melissa Jones would grab the rebound. But with no timeouts left, she tried to bring the ball up the floor but couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer giving the Huskies the one point win.
Moore, who played the entire 40 minutes, also added seven rebounds, three assists and six steals. Hartley finished the game with nine points, four rebounds and three assists. Tiffany Hayes was the only other Husky in double digits with 16 points. Stefanie Dolson, making her first career start, led the Huskies with eight rebounds before fouling out.
Griner led the way for the Bears with 19 points and added seven rebounds and nine blocked shots. Odyessy Jones added 17 points and Hayden chipped in with 15 points. Melissa Jones had a game-high 14 rebounds to go along with five points and four assists.
Baylor and Griner got off to a hot start as the Bears got out to an early five point lead. But Moore and the Huskies responded with a 12-2 run. UConn would extend their lead to 29-21 with 3:37 to go and that lead of eight points would stand at the half as they went into the break leading 35-27.
UConn started the second half on an 9-2 run to push the lead to 15 points but Baylor responded with a 27-4 run to take an eight point lead with 6:51 remaining.
One thing’s for certain. Auriemma definitely learned alot about his team on Tuesday night. No one on the team has really faced any adversity and after a little lull, they picked up their games.
I thought that Samarie Walker did a great job against Griner after Dolson picked up two early fouls and looked like a freshman on the offensive end. Walker’s play was key in helping the Huskies get out to the first half lead.
The Huskies now will head to Moore’s home state of Georgia as they’ll take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Sunday, November 21st. The game is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. and will be televised locally here in CT on CPTV.
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Notes and musings:
Baylor Bears @ UConn Huskies 11.16.2010 box score
Here are some quotes from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, Maya Moore, Bria Hartley, Samarie Walker and Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey.
Former Huskies Sue Bird, Rita Williams and Swin Cash were there to support the Huskies.
This was UConn’s 58th straight home win and 35th straight at the XL Center.
UConn is now 13-2 in games played between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the AP Poll. They are 10-1 during those contests when ranked No. 1.
Baylor is the fifth team to lead UConn for at least ten minutes during the 80 game winning streak.
The one point margin of victory was the smallest during the winning streak and only the second one to be in single digits.
The Huskies shot just 32.9% (23-of-70) for the game while the Bears shot 50% (22-of-44). This was the first time an opponent has shot at least 50% from the floor during the 80 game winning streak.
UConn had 12 assists on their 23 made baskets.
The Huskies shot 93.3% (14-of-15) from the foul line and 21.7% (5-of-23) from three point land.
UConn held a 40-35 rebounding advantage including a 17-6 advantage on the offensive end.
The Huskies forced Baylor into 24 turnovers and scored 17 points off of them. UConn had 15 turnovers which the Bears turned into 18 points.
Photo credits: AP Photo, AP Photo
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