University of Connecticut Athletics
Turner and Taurasi Lead Huskies Over St. Joseph's
12/22/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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HARTFORD, CT (December 22, 2002) – Freshman Barbara Turner (Cleveland, OH) and junior All-America Diana Taurasi (Chino, CA) each scored 17 points to lead second-ranked Connecticut to an 82-48 victory over St. Joseph’s Sunday before a sellout crowd of 16,294 at the Hartford Civic Center.
The win extends the Huskies’ winning streak to 48 straight, within just six of the all-time NCAA record set by Louisiana Tech. UConn is now 9-0, while the Hawks drop to 3-5.
The Huskies broke from the gate quickly, scoring the game’s first 14 points. But St. Joseph’s battled back to within five at 20-15, before Turner scored six points to key a half-ending 17-6 run to give UConn a 37-21 lead. Taurasi scored 12 points to pace UConn in the first half. The Huskies took excellent care of the ball committing just four turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.
UConn took control of the game with a quick 12-5 spurt to start the second half, giving the Huskies a 49-26 advantage. Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma was able to freely substitute for the rest of the game.
Turner’s 17 points was her career-high, and came on five of eight shooting. Also in double figures for UConn were sophomore Jessica Moore (Palmer, AK) and freshman Ann Strother (Castle Rock, CO) who scored 11 and 10 respectively. Sophomore Ashley Battle (Pittsburgh, PA) grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Taurasi dished out a game-high seven assists.
Irina Krasnoshiok led St. Joe’s with 12 points.
The Huskies now set their sights on a brief two-game road trip to Florida, where they play at South Florida and Florida State. UConn will play South Florida on Saturday, December 28, with game time set for 7:00 p.m.
Coach Geno Auriemma Quotes
Some things I say do come true. I said we would shoot 60% in the second half during halftime and we did.
Ashley Battle looked like James Worthy for the first five minutes of the game
I feel that everyone (teams) is having the same issues. I have watched a few games on TV and I am seeing the same things from everyone. I am seeing good and bad from everyone, and that includes us as well.
On getting Jessica Moore involved into the offense
She is doing the little things. She shot 5 for 8 from the floor, but she missed two dead lay-ups, again. She should be averaging 14 points a game, but she is doing the little things. I am constantly on her to do the little things that come her way. I feel that she is a snapshot of our team. Little by little, I feel that she is getting there.
On adding Barbara Turner to the offense
Barbara is practicing much better. She has had a huge turnaround the past two weeks. I feel that she is rounding into form, the player we recruited out of high school. She is being more productive in practice. Her confidence is growing as well. I feel that she is a good post player for her size because of the way she puts her hands in the air with the ball.
On the play of St. Joe’s
There two tall guys play well together. They do some good stuff. I feel that they made a game of it for the first half.
On the play of the bench
They played very solid for the last five minutes. I feel that a lot of things were accomplished from our bench.
On the team being grounded
I feel that being grounded prevents us from being confident, I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. We are working on it. We ended our first stretch, the stretch that starts at the start of the year and ends before Christmas.
UConn Player Quotes
On the Game
I think it was a good game, everyone played hard and we went out there and did things we wanted to
What did Coach Say at Halftime?
Basically that we had a really good five minutes and that we had to continue that the rest of the game, we lost our focus of a little while, but as the game went on, we worked on getting that focus back.
What did you do to get Jessica Involved?
We told her that she’s a ball-shooter, she’s been really tentative lately, and we told her to shoot the ball.
On the Game
Coach gave a really good pep talk, he really did motivate and we did what we needed to do.
On the Game
We had a lot of energy coming out; we wanted to have a good game before we went home.
St. Joe’s Coach Cindy Griffin:
“ I think our kids competed for close to about 20-25 minutes, and they wouldn’t give way, which is a good sign.”
Comparing UConn to Duke
“I think we did the same thing. We went through spurts in the first half and the beginning of the second half that we just couldn’t recover from, the same thing happened against Duke.”
“I think Duke may have a little advantage as far as the bench is concerned, they might be a little bit deeper.”
“Connecticut is going to work in process, they are young kids, they are terrific, they are going to get better as the season progresses, there’s no doubt about it.”
“ She’s strong, she’s athletic. Which pretty much goes for all their post players.”
“She’s going to be a terrific player. You have seen what Geno has done with his post players, Asjha Jones, and the rest of the crew. They are just going to continue to get better.”
