UConn Begins Four-Game Stretch at Syracuse

SYRACUSE, NY (February 10) -- The Connecticut women’s basketball team will travel to Syracuse for a Wednesday night game at Manley Fieldhouse. Game time is set for 7:00 pm and will be televised locally on CPTV.

The second-ranked Huskies are looking for their eighth straight win. UConn has a record of 18-2 overall and owns an 8-1 conference record. The Orangewomen are amidst a six-game conference losing streak holding a record of 6-14 overall and are 3-7 in the BIG EAST.

Wednesday’s game with Syracuse marks the 37th all-time meeting. The Huskies hold a 24-12 advantage in the series with the Orangewomen and have won the last 10 meetings and 17 of the last 18 overall meetings. UConn’s last loss to Syracuse came on January 2, 1996 by the score of 62-59 at Manley Fieldhouse.

Wednesday’s game begins the first of a four-game stretch that features three BIG EAST road games. UConn’s starting five of Diana Taurasi, Maria Conlon, Jessica Moore, Ann Strother and Barbara Turner have started each of the Huskies’ 20 games this season. In addition, UConn has seen its current starting five open each of the last 26 games.

Strother continues to build on each solid performance down the stretch. She is averaging 17.0 points over her last four games and has posted double-figure points in six of the last seven games. She has also increased her rebounding bringing down 6.2 boards over the last five games. On the season, she is averaging 12.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Taurasi continues to be the solid player she is averaging 17.7 points per game and ranks third in the BIG EAST in scoring and first in three-point percentage (.427). In UConn’s win over Miami, she grabbed a career-best six steals and is 29 shy of cracking into the top 10 of the UConn career steal list.

The Huskies will be the fourth top 25 team Syracuse will face this season and are currently 0-3 against those opponents. Syracuse’s three lone wins in the conference have been against Pittsburgh (71-51), Rutgers (58-57 –OT) and Providence (55-60). Most recently, SU fell at West Virginia, 56-36, on February 7. West Virginia managed to stop Syracuse’s 171-game streak of netting a three-point shot. The Orangewomen went 0-for-12 from deep in that contest.

Senior Julie McBride is scoring 15.8 points per game and is sixth in the BIG EAST statistics. McBride is just 48-points shy of becoming Syracuse’s all-time leading scorer. She currently has a total of 1,479 points and needs to break Felisha Legette’s school-record sum of 1,526 points. Freshman Lauren Kohn is the BIG EAST’s top three-point shooting freshman in both percentage (35.5) and makes per game (2.2). She is SU’s second-leading scorer at 9.1 points per game.

Syracuse head coach Keith Cieplicki is in his first season at the helm of the Orangewomen and in his sixth overall year as a head coach. He holds a 133-67 record and spent six seasons at the University of Vermont before making the jump to Syracuse. Coincidentally, Cieplicki was the high school coach of UConn’s Morgan Valley in her freshman year at Rice High School in Colchester, Vt.