Huskies Advance to BIG EAST Semifinals with a Win Over Virginia Tech

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HARTFORD, CT (March 7, 2004) – Sophomore Barbara Turner scored 13 points and junior center Jessica Moore chipped in with 11 as third-ranked Connecticut defeated Virginia Tech, 48-34, Sunday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the 2004 BIG EAST Championship at the Hartford Civic Center.

The win improves the Huskies’ record to 25-3, while the Hokies slip to 22-7. The win advances top-seeded UConn into Monday’s semifinals where they will face fifth-seeded Boston College, a 65-53 victor over Miami in Sunday’s first quarterfinal game. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m. and NESN and the MSG Network will televise the game.

The Huskies struggled offensively throughout the contest, but were able to be victorious due to a tenacious defense that held Virginia Tech to just 26% shooting, 23% after halftime. It was the second best field goal defense of the campaign for UConn, trailing just the 24% performance of St. Joseph’s on December 21. A late 3-pointer by Carrie Mason allowed the Hokies to avoid setting a school record for fewest points scored in a game. UConn narrowly missed setting a Championship record for fewest points allowed in a game, just off the 32 points Villanova scored against Rutgers in 2000.

UConn trailed just twice in the contest, the last time at 8-6, but never seemed to have total control of the contest. The Huskies led 21-14 at the half, and led by just nine, at 38-29, with 4:50 to play, but scored the game’s next eight points on three-point plays by Ashley Battle and Turner, sandwiched around a Moore lay-up. The run gave the Huskies a 46-29 lead, and they cruised to the victory.

The win enabled the Huskies to win for the 30th time in their last 31 BIG EAST Championship games, and UConn now stands 17-3 all-time in quarterfinal round games, 2-0 against Virginia Tech.

The Huskies were able to win despite a sub-par performance by two-time Conference Player of the Year Diana Taurasi, who scored just four points on 2 of 10 shooting. Battle came off of the bench to score seven points and yank down a game-high 10 rebounds. UConn shot just 32% (18 of 57), which was their second worst shooting performance of the season, only eclipsed by their 31% shooting at Notre Dame on January 13.

Mason led all scorers with 13 for Virginia Tech.

POST GAME QUOTES
UConn Coach Geno Auriemma
On Virginia Tech
I don’t know what their shooting percentage is for the season, and I don’t know what it was today… I didn’t check the final stats… I know that from our end, their defense had a lot to do with the way we shot. It was very difficult to get a lot of open shots. I thought some of our problems were with impatience. I thought we were a little bit in a hurry in the early part, but they’ve got the most aggressive team in the league I think. They’re the biggest and most athletic team that we play against in our conference, so it was very difficult. And then they’ve got the front line… their post players are the biggest in the conference… so other than Carrie Mason, there’s not a whole lot of people out there that I like. All the other guys are a problem… this team is a tough match-up for us. That shouldn’t be the reward for us for being first in our league, getting them in the quarterfinals.

On the talent at this tournament
I just think the conference championships are getting increasingly difficult. People talk about parity and all that other stuff… I’ll give you an idea, Virginia Tech lost to Miami. Had they won that game, they would have been the third seed, instead they lost and came in an eighth seed. The difference between being third and eight was one game. Now, we’re looking at in order for us to win the tournament, we have to beat three teams whose power ratings are probably all in the 20’s. I don’t know what our RPI is as a conference, but I don’t think there’s a lot of conferences that have a higher RPI rating that us. At least of the teams that are left standing in this tournament, I would want to see, of the eight teams that are playing in this tournament in the next couple of days, I would want to see what conference has a higher RPI of the teams that are in their quarterfinals. I don’t think it can get any tougher than this. If you have Boston College, and you say look, you have to beat Miami, Connecticut and whoever else, well, they’ve got it tough too. So, it’s not like we got it tough, everybody’s got it tough.

Diana Taurasi
On the overall flow of the game
I think defensively we played really well. Coming in, we knew that Jess, AB and Barbara have played really well down low against their post players, and we did a great job down low and rebounding. Offensively, they’re a real physical team and we just couldn’t get into a good flow at all until a little bit in the second half when we slowed it down and started going inside and outside in the beginning of the second half.

Jessica Moore
On the second half
Whenever you come out in the second half you always want to make the first punch against the other team and just try to build on your lead, and I think we really did a good job of that. We became really patient and we were really looking for each other, and we were able to re-group and re-think how we were playing, and it just seemed to work.

On being motivated from not receiving any honors from the BIG EAST
I just really wanted to come out and play well so we can get to the next game. That’s what it’s all about to me, to go out and help my teammates try to win a BIG EAST title. I could really care less what other people think and how they think that I play basketball… what coach thinks and what my teammates think is all that matters to me.

Ashley Battle
On the difference between Virginia Tech from the last game to this game
I think today they were more aggressive defensively, and they were getting in the passing lanes which made it difficult for us to reverse the ball, and kind of made our offense a little shaky. We wanted to get some backdoors in there, but it was just too clogged in the lane to try to get anything, so I think they played more physical today.