No. 2/2 Women’s Basketball Moves To 7-0 With 75-45 Win Over Virginia 
Mel Thomas scores her 1,000 career point

Box Score (.html)

HARTFORD, Conn. (December 5, 2007) – Senior Mel Thomas (Cincinnati, Ohio) became the 29th member of the 1,000 point club and three Huskies scored in double-figures as the No. 2/2 University of Connecticut women’s basketball team defeated the University of Virginia 75-45 at the Hartford Civic Center.
 
Sophomore Tina Charles (Jamacia, N.Y.) led all scorers with 18 points while pulling down six rebounds. Senior Brittany Hunter (Columbus, Ohio) added 14 points, the most she has scored in a UConn (7-0) uniform, and freshman Maya Moore (Lawrenceville, Ga.) added 12 for her seventh consecutive game in double-figures.
 
Virginia (6-4) opened the game with a layup by Monica Wright just four seconds into play. However, the Huskies went on a 16-2 run over the next four minutes, forcing the Cavaliers to take a time out with 15:56 left in the stanza. The UConn lead stayed steady between 12 and 17 points before the Huskies rattled off eight consecutive points to open up a 24 point advantage with 7:38 left in the half. UConn closed out the half with a 44-22 lead on a 60.0% shooting effort, 21-of-35. Hunter led the Huskies with 12 points in the stanza to go along with five rebounds, one block and one steal.
 
The second half started just like the first, with Lyndra Littles sinking a jumper 20 second into play, but the Huskies held onto their lead by rattling off seven straight points. During that stretch, with 17:19 remaining in play, Thomas sank a jump shot for her 1,000th career point.
 
For the game, the Huskies went 33-of-57 from the floor, a 57.9% clip. In addition to her game-high 18 points, Charles blocked three shots, tying with junior Kalana Greene (Saint Stephen, S.C.) for the most in the game. Hunter pulled down five rebounds, while Thomas, junior Renee Montgomery (St. Albans, W. Va.), and Greene each dished out four assists apiece. Senior Ketia Swanier (Columbus, Ga.) led UConn with three steals.
 
Aisha Mohammed led Virginia with 13 points and 11 rebounds while Wright added 10 points. Sharnee Zoll dished out four assists in the game for the Cavaliers, who shot 30.0% from the floor on 18-of-60 shooting.
 
The Huskies will be in action next on Monday, Dec. 17, when they play host to the South Carolina Gamecocks in Gampel Pavilion. Game time is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on CPTV.

Game Notes

• UConn has won 20 consecutive regular season games following tonight’s win over Virginia.
   
• UConn moves to 4-2 all-time in the series vs. Virginiai following tonight’s win.
   
• UConn improves to 25-13 all-time against ACC opponents following tonight’s win over Virginia.
   
• UConn extended its wining streak in December to 13 consecutive games and improves to 151-54 all-time during the month.
   
• UConn moves to 7-0 for the second consecutive season and the 12th time since 1993-94.
   
• UConn improves to 285-8 all-time in game televised on Connecticut Public Television (CPTV).
   
• Tonight’s win improved extended UConn’s home-court winning streak vs. non-ranked opponents to 202 straight games.
   
• UConn improves to 202-3 since Jan. 31, 1999 vs. non-ranked opponents overall following tonight’s win over Virginia.
   
• UConn improves to 78-11 all-time at the Hartford Civic Center and 2-0 in 2007-08 following tonight’s win over Virginia.
   
• UConn improves to 248-11 on its home courts (Storrs/Hartford) since the 1993-94 season.
   
• Brittany Hunter and Tina Charles each posted 10 points while shooting 5-of-5 from the field in the opening 13 minutes of the contest.
   
• Freshman Maya Moore’s 12 points extends her streak of consecutive games with double-figure points to seven straight to open her UConn career.
   
• Brittany Hunter’s 14 points marked her first game with double-figure points this season and the 15th of her UConn career.
   
• Tina Charles’ 18 points marked her seventh consecutive game with double-figure points this season and the 30th of her career.
   
• Mel Thomas became the 29th player in UConn history to reach the 1,000-point milestone, with seven points tonight, giving her 1,002 for her career. She is now 28th on the UConn all-time scoring list.
   
• Brittany Hunter’s 14 points marked her highest single-game point total at UConn.
   
• UConn’s .600 (21-of-35) field goal percentage in the first half represented its highest opening half field goal percentage since it posted a .686 (24-of-35) clip at Providence on Jan. 17, 2007.
   
• UConn’s 13 blocks are the most since they had 16 in a win against Notre Dame on Jan. 27, 2007.

University of Connecticut

Head Coach Geno Auriemma | Mel Thomas | Tina Charles | Brittany Hunter

Head Coach Geno Auriemma 

What are you going to do about the terrible free throw shooting?

“I’m not going to do anything about it. I don’t shoot them so there is nothing I can do about them. I was a good free throw shooter when I was in school. You just have to get the right players fouled. I’m not going to worry about it because there is nothing I can do about it.” 

Can you talk about Brittany Hunter’s performance tonight?

“I though Brittany was great. I thought she set the tone during the first ten minutes of the game. She is playing with a lot of confidence right now and it’s not just one thing, but a lot of little things that she is doing well right now and I’m really happy for her. Of all the post players I thought she was by far the most productive. You need a player like that, especially on our team where you have Tina Charles staying in one spot waiting for the ball, whereas Brittany is moving around and that’s what you need.” 

The team had 13 blocks tonight, what are your thoughts on the defensive performance?

“I thought the refs let us play in the first half. They let a lot of incidental stuff go and gave us an opportunity to block shots. In the second half I think they should have thrown our team off the court. In the first half, I thought we played 20 minutes of really good basketball.” 

Do you think you guys are going to be pretty tough to beat if you keep getting great production inside from Brittany (Hunter), Tina (Charles), and Maya (Moore)?

“You still have to complement that with some other stuff. I’m not a glass half-full guy, with me the glass is always empty. I’m always thinking down the road what’s the scenario. If you can score inside, you have half the chance or three-quarters of a chance to win every game. I don’t think we shot the ball real well tonight from the perimeter. I think we are going to have to do that and also make our free throws. We defended pretty well in the lane, we scored in the post pretty well, and our defense was pretty good so if you can do that many good things within the course of a game you have a pretty good chance to win.”

Senior Guard, Mel Thomas:

On going for 1000 points:

 “I was just trying to score and they were not going in; there are days like that when they just don’t go in. I just kept shooting and eventually a couple went in which was enough to get 1000 points.” 

How did it feel to finally get 1000 points?

“It felt good, people have been hyping this up a lot and it was good to get it over with.  It was exciting but it was good to just get it out of the way.” 

What did you think every time you got the ball in the first half? It seemed the crowd was anxious.

“I obviously knew that I needed five points but I was just trying to score and the first couple didn’t seem to go in.” 

Sophomore Center, Tina Charles:

On post game:

“We really tried to put effort into practice about getting high lows and looking for each other.   We know that we can dominate in the post if just make our lay-ups and shots.  I think that Brittany Hunter did a great job at that tonight.” 

How does it feel when Brittany Hunter has a game like tonight?

“It is real good; just the fact that I know when I kick the ball out that it will definitely go in or if it doesn’t go in then I know where to rebound it.  Brittany Hunter has really practiced knocking down her 15 footers.” 

On rest of season:

“I think that we need to keep executing and doing the things that coach wants us to do.  I feel that when he puts the other group in the game; Tahirah (Williams), Meghan (Gardler) and Cassie (Kerns), I think that they did a great job at executing the plays that we have been working on in practice.  I think if we follow what they did as the first group, I feel that we can be real good.”

Senior Forward, Brittany Hunter:

Can you talk about the inside play today?

“Yeah, I mean we didn’t really make it a focus today.  It was just an all around performance, everybody do what you’re supposed to do, but I think our inside game was really good today.” 

You were feeling it with the jumper tonight…

“Yeah, Coach made a point to say today that we are going to get that look all day if other teams aren’t going to guard us, especially the post players on the foul.  So, if we can’t make that shot – I mean they still didn’t guard us so Coach just said to keep shooting so I kept shooting.” 

Did you feel like taking a three pointer at one point?

“No…Coach sometimes throws it out there.  I’m just like no!  I have to shoot them in practice before I do it in a game.” 

If the inside game wasn’t the focus, were you just taking what they were giving you?

“Yeah, I mean we went over their stuff today.  We kind of knew what they were going to do, what they were going to look for.  We knew they kind of wanted to double in the post so you just have to cut or hit the foul line jumper.” 

On Mel Thomas getting 1,000 points:

“We were really excited.  There was a point in the game where we were like, ‘Mel how many points do you need?’  She said, ‘I need five!’, and we were like, ‘get your five then!’  It was just like we were running plays for her and she finally hit it and I was really excited for her.” 

University of Virginia

Head Coach Debbie Ryan 

On UConn’s inside game: 

“I think they started 8-for-9 to start the game in the paint and we didn’t do much to stop it. We have been a fairly solid defensive team in our first eight or nine games. But tonight we met an inside game that was a little over our heads. The offense that they play spreads you out and it pretty much puts you one on one with their post players. They just played extremely well tonight.” 

On Brittany Hunter: 

“Brittany has always been a great player but injuries have taken her away from the game for periods of time. It sounds like she has really come into her own. She really gets a chance to play the minutes that she needs to play and then she gets taken out. So I can imagine that it helps her sustain being able to play over a long period of time during the season because I’m sure she still has some injury issues.” 

On UConn:

“You have to have a little more patience. They made us play a little too fast.” There are so many things you must do. The main thing is you have to defend and if you can defend and let your defense dictate what your offense does you are in a whole lot better place. We haven’t learned that against regular teams let alone an UConn yet. If a team defends you and takes you out of your offense, you have to put up the same amount of fight on the defensive end and that is not what we were doing.

You have to just play solid defensively and do what you can. They are going to score and if you just stay solid defensively you can possibly score with them.

They are so deep. That’s the thing that makes them so tough. They are deep and every single one of their players understands the system and plays in the system. They all do the same things. But we don’t match that right now. And I don’t know many teams in the country that could match that. As a matter of fact I don’t think anybody at this point in time could play them because they are a little further ahead.  I’ve seen everybody so far and I don’t think anybody is where they are right now at this moment. 

Do I think teams will catch up? Absolutely. A lot of teams are going to catch up by March. Now will they catch up all the way? I don’t know but there isn’t anybody right now that I see that can really play with that kind of discipline and poise. This is a tough place to play. They are ahead of the country right now and I don’t know why they aren’t number one but I certainly would vote for them. And that’s not just because I played them. Or because Geno worked for me.”