University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies Cruise Past Crusaders
11/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
HARTFORD, CT (November 30, 2003) - Junior center Jessica Moore notched the third double-double of her career with 17 points and 14 rebounds as top-ranked Connecticut easily outscored Holy Cross, 76-42, before the 99th straight home sellout Sunday afternoon at the Hartford Civic Center.
The win improves the Huskies’ record to a spotless 3-0 on the season, while the Crusaders slip to 3-2.
The Huskies defense set the tone from the beginning, as they forced turnovers on Holy Cross’ first three possessions, all on steals by sophomore Ann Strother. UConn led 7-0 just 1:39 into the contest, and were never seriously threatened. Moore had her way in the lane throughout the game, scoring 13 points before halftime, and shot a solid eight for 11 from the field. She paced a huge 40-14 advantage in points in the paint for the Huskies. Her 14 rebounds was a career best. Senior Morgan Valley matched her career high with eight rebounds as well.
UConn shot 53% in the first half, but a box-in-one defense harassed the Huskies into missing their first eight shots after intermission. The Huskies shot just 31% (10 of 32) in the second half, and finished shooting 42% for the game. The Huskies took excellent care of the ball, committing just nine turnovers, and forced Holy Cross into 22 miscues, which were converted into 23 points.
Joining Moore in double figures was senior Diana Taurasi who scored 16, and sophomore Barbara Turner who scored 14 points. Taurasi scored in double figures for the 17th straight game, and 84th time in her illustrious career.
The game marked the career debuts for two Husky freshmen. Center Liz Sherwood played eight minutes and scored six points and grabbed two rebounds. Kiana Robinson played four minutes. Both players had been injured to start the season.
The win marked the 34th straight at the Civic Center and it was the 23rd straight in Hartford for UConn.
Lisa Andrews paced Holy Cross with 14 points.
The Huskies will return to action on Tuesday, December 2, when they entertain Siena at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be televised locally by CPTV.
Head Coach Geno Auriemma Post-Game Quotes
University of Connecticut vs. Holy Cross
November 30, 2003
Geno Auriemma
(on what team’s got out of the game)
“I think every time you play, there’s something that comes out of the game. And if you were smart enough, you can find things either in a win or in a loss. So I’m sure Billy (Gibbons) looked at some of the things that they did and figured that if they can execute those things against us that they can execute those things against anybody. If teams that had a lot more talent ran their offense as well as Holy Cross does, we might not have four national championships.”
(on offense in the first half)
“I think the offense in the beginning was more of a “Should I, shouldn’t I shoot it?” as opposed to just getting the ball moving. Once we did that I thought that we’re starting to do a better job looking for D (Taurasi). In the beginning we were just content to just take open shots which I’m fine with.”
“I don’t think you can be the kind of team where you’re going to get your points from one person and that’s it. Ann (Strother) and Barbara (Turner) and those guys have to make open shots because that’s what they’re going to get, and a lot of them. So if you start doing that now, where you do everything for them, what happens when you get in the NCAA Tournament and somebody does that? Then those kids aren’t ready to take those shots. So they have got to take them whether they make them or not. But they didn’t go in during the first half in long stretches.”
(on defensive play)
“Every time they tried to run something, early on we trapped it and disrupted some of their timing and got them rushed a little bit. But we can’t do it like we used to, and it’s a little different now. It just takes a little bit longer for us to get done what we need to get done.”
(on Jessica Moore)
“I think it was important for her to bounce back after the game she had the other night because she wasn’t really happy with the way she played against Florida State. So I think she really wanted to come back and play really well.”
(on halftime talk )
“What I thought was happening in the first half was our guys were too busy trying to execute a certain play. They (Holy Cross) would set up and change a little bit and our guys were slow reading the stuff. So we talked about how you can’t orchestrate where you need to go, you just have to see it.”
(on Liz Sherwood)
“Liz is going to be alright. She needs to get in game shape obviously, and little by little she will. But, you can see that when she’s in the game there’s a lot of buzz in there and offensively she knows where the basket is and which way she’s got to turn. Defensively, she takes up a lot of space in the middle. Liz has got a great attitude, and a great personality, so I don’t doubt she’s going to improve every day. Tuesday she’ll be better than she was today.”
Connecticut vs. Holy Cross
November 30, 2003
Connecticut Post-Game Player Quotes
Liz Sherwood
On playing:
“I was really nervous. I really didn’t know what to expect [for playing time], but I just wanted to get in the game and I did, so I was happy. It was funny hearing the crowd cheer like that. It was a relief to get the first game over with… I was nervous… hopefully next time I won’t be as nervous. I felt good out there, and my knee doesn’t hurt so it felt good to run.”
On driving to the basket:
“It helps open up [the guards] a lot, and it’s something that I look for when I’m driving to the basket. If the defense collapses on me, I look to kick it out to D and Ann and those guys, and I think the fact that I’m being so effective going to the basket is really going to help the team down the road.”
On the offensive drought at the start of the second half:
“It just happens like that… in the second half, for the first 10 plays we got wide open shots and we just didn’t make them. The fact that we were able to overcome that and make good plays defensively is what let us keep the lead so large. We know there’s going to be times when we’re not going to hit shots, and when that happens we just have to pick it up on the defensive end.”
Jessica Moore
On Geno’s motivation during a first half time out:
“Basically he just asked me if there was a problem, and I said no, and he told me to start playing and get focused. I hadn’t really noticed that the girl I was guarding had scored some points on me, and when coach asked what was wrong I thought, ok, now I need to regroup and get ready to play, and what he said really helped. When I regroup I’m just trying to bear down and get focused on what I need to do as an individual player, whether it’s on defense or on offense where I’m having the problem.”
On playing with Liz:
“I’m so excited, because that’s what’s going to bring me up, when I can just run and do whatever I want because I know that Liz will be there to have my back. She’s going to be like Shaq, and no one’s going to be able to stop her. For Liz to be out for that long and to really contribute in a really big way is awesome for me because I see her every day and I know what she can do.”:
On Holy Cross: “They’re a good team, and they play hard and they play smart, and they’re not going to make a lot of mistakes, so when they do you have to figure them out and take advantage of them. It was a fun game and a hard-fought game.”
On the offense:
“The bottom line really, with Barbara, Jessica, AB and Morgan is that if [the opponent] is going to give them a 15-footer, they have to take it, and make it. I don’t put a count [on when to shoot more] but when it’s time to be a little bit more aggressive, then I am.”
On the freshmen:
“Kiana looked good and Liz looked good, and it felt good for them to finally be in the game. I think it was a relief for them. Liz is big and good, and when you have that combination, it’s hard to stop. Once she gets into the flow of practice and the up and down, and how fast the game is, she’s going to be really tough.”
Holy Cross Head Coach Bill Gibbons and #00 Lisa Andrews
Post Game Quotes
11/30/03
Coach Bill Gibbons
Opening Comments
‘The stars need to be aligned and everything needs to work out and try and steal one against UCONN. I told some of you earlier today that I was a little apprehensive about the scheduling we had perfect scheduling last year with them coming back from Hawaii, I told Geno that we could play them at Bradley International Airport. We had a lot of players which we really didn’t practice on Friday we walked through things and it is tough to walk through things. I was very proud of my team. I put three words on the board at halftime: pride, toughness and the jersey, the Holy Cross jersey, that is what they are playing for in the second half.”
“Regardless of what the score is this was a big twenty minutes for this team and I was very proud of my team in the second half. I thought that first four or five minutes a lot of teams would have faded with the crowd up, we actually played better defense when we got back to our old stuff in the second half. We played better defense in the second half, we kept attacking. I loved how our young kids and starters kept on attacking, those are the things that we look for at Holy Cross, those are the things that will make us a better program and in the Patriot League.”
“Maggie Fontana was injured but she wouldn’t tell me, I though Placek and Campbell gave us blood. The best thing for us was the play of #33 Brittany Keil, she is going to be a player for us and the play of #52 Kaitlin Foley, the two freshmen got a baptism of fire today and that will really make them better players in our league and the future.”
On UConn’s 2 big runs
“You always have to prevent their runs. It was funny, my oldest son was breaking down the Florida State game tape and he told me that we need to stop their runs. It is easier said then done. There were just two runs in the second half, and I used my timeouts early. We just didn’t take care of the ball and shot early and we didn’t get back on defense. I though we played pretty good defense in the second half and I though the girls played pretty well, we didn’t execute quiet as well as I wanted to against their zone, other then that we can take some positives. We are not happy about losing, but we can take away some positives, especially that second half.”
On the mystique of playing UCONN
‘I really thank Geno for doing this series and Jeff Hathaway for running a first class program and I want to keep this going and I know Geno wants to keep this going. It is great for scheduling, people in our league look at us with this mystique, it is great for our fans and every time we play, especially at home we get two hundred new fans that like UCONN and women’s basketball, there are so many positives that outweigh the negatives, as long as these girls don’t lose fate, and these girls don’t get down and lose confidence and that is something that we as coaches have done is keep their confidence and build up on playing UConn. I get the most pumped up about this game, this is little girl in pink-tails playing, and how can it not be a positive. I am glad other teams in New England don’t play them, because that gives us a chance to play them, it is a great series for us and I cherish this series, I look forward to it and it will make us better. We need to get players and continue to knock on the door until we can bang it down.”
On the defense of Holy Cross
“We kind of played a five down and make Barbara Turner and Jessica Moore shoot from the outside, and I felt we did a pretty good job of that, and I think I out-thought myself by switching between our regular man to man and that kind of five down. I remember Moore hitting one, but other than that, it was pretty effective. We wanted them shooting shots, and obviously we didn’t want Diana Taurasi to beat us.”
#00 Lisa Andrews
“Coming out of a game like this, we, as a team really grow up. Defensively, we were with them, we got it to five points, and we learned a lot from that and the freshmen learned a lot from that as well. It is UConn, national champs and we were able to stay with them, and I think we can walk away from that. We can walk away with a smile on our face. We stuck with them but they had two runs”
