Huskies Hand Rutgers First-Home Loss of the Season Behind Turner's Career
Night
 Boxscore
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PISCATAWAY, NJ (February 14) – Sophomore Barbara Turner scored a
career-high 27 points in the University of Connecticut women’s
basketball team’s crushing over Rutgers, 66-43, at the Louis Brown
Athletic Center on Saturday night before a sold-out crowd of 8,000
fans.
The Huskies have now won nine straight games and improves their record to
20-2 overall and 10-1 in the BIG EAST. Connecticut stopped Rutgers 11-game home
win streak handing the Scarlet Knights their first home loss during the 2003-04
season. Rutgers drops to 14-9 overall and holds a 6-5 record in the conference.
Connecticut came out strong in the first half dominating play on both the
offensive and defensive sides of the court. The Huskies bounded out to an early
8-0 lead before Rutgers’ Dawn McCullouch hit a long-two point shot at the 14:59
mark to put the Scarlet Knights on the board. UConn continued to roll scoring
the next 13-points to take a 21-2 lead. McCullouch scored on a lay-up taking all
four Rutgers points at the 8:01
 mark. The Huskies largest
lead of the half was 16-points when the teams retired to the locker room with a
34-10 Connecticut advantage.
UConn’s Turner, junior Jessica Moore and sophomore Ann Strother combined for
31 of UConn’s 34 points in the first-half. Senior Diana Taurasi scored on a
lay-up and junior Ashley Battle hit a free-throw for UConn’s other three
first-half points. UConn was dominant in the paint scoring 22- points to Rutgers
four inside the lane.
The Huskies held Rutgers leading scorer Cappie Pondexter to only three-points
while McCullouch had a total of five first half points. The last time a UConn
opponent scored less than 10 points in a half was on December 4, 2001 when St.
John’s was held to nine points by the Huskies.
The second half faired better for Rutgers as the team barley outscored
Connecticut, 33-32. The Scarlet Knights cut the scoring deficit by as much as
16-points but could not catch the Huskies. At the 14:44 mark of the second half,
McCullouch hit a 3-poin ter
bringing the score to 46-22, which gave Rutgers more points in the first
three-and-a-half minutes of the second half than scored in the entire first
half.
Turner added eight rebounds and shot 12-for-15 from the floor, along with her
career-high 27 points. Moore notched her third double-double of the season with
10 points and 14 rebounds. Strother scored 15 points and Taurasi added 11
tallies. The Huskies grabbed 48 rebounds in the win but was only 53-percent from
the free throw line shooting 9-for-17. UConn turned the ball over 19 times.
The Scarlet Knights were led by McCullouch’s 14 points. Michelle Campbell had
nine tallies and Pondexter was held to only seven points. Rutgers shot
29-percent from the floor but only committed nine turnovers in the loss.
The Huskies will play host to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, February 17 at the
Hartford Civic Center. Game time is set for 7:00 pm and will be televised
locally on CPTV.
POST GAME NOTES
- Tonight’s win marks UConn’s 12 consecutive and 16th overall 20-win season
- UConn is 38-1 on the road dating back to February 1, 2001
- Connecticut has won 53 of its last 54 BIG EAST games
- UConn has won 11 straight games over Rutgers
- Jessica Moore’s first point of the game gave her 800-career-points at
UConn
- The Huskies have won its last 125 of 126 games against unranked team
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