University of Connecticut Athletics
Women's Basketball Opens Preseason WNIT With 71-45 Win
11/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Red Foxes battled the Huskies to a virtual standstill, trailing just 32-30 when Alisa Kresge hit a three-pointer with 15:40 to play before the Huskies asserted themselves both offensively and defensively. UConn quickly fired off a 9-0 run as Greene scored two big hoops. Marist’s Julianne Viani sandwiched a pair of three-pointers around a Strother jumper bring Marist within seven at 43-36, before the Huskies put the game away with a decisive 26-2 run over 8:19. Strother scored 12 points, including a pair of three-pointers, and Thomas had 10 in the big Husky spurt.
Thomas eclipsed her previous career-best total for points which she set last year in her freshman campaign with 14 points against Syracuse. She played a terrific all-around game, making seven of 11 field goals, including four of seven from beyond the arc. Strother finished with 20 points on nine of 14 shooting, adding seven rebounds. Greene, seeing her first official collegiate action, scoring 14 points on seven of twelve shooting. Those three players combined to score 40 of their 57 points after intermission. Swanier was the floor leader during UConn’s big offensive run, dishing out a game-high seven assists to go along with snagging a game-high eight rebounds, which set her career-high.
The contest started slowly for both squads, but UConn led 17-11 when senior Barbara Turner (Cleveland, Ohio) left with two fouls, never to return to the contest. UConn struggled without Turner for the remainder of the half, and settled for a 27-24 lead at halftime.
UConn finished the contest shooting 51% (29 of 57), including six of 14 three-pointers. The Huskies took excellent care of the ball, committing just nine turnovers against 19 assists. The Huskies enjoyed a 34-8 advantage in points in the paint as well. UConn held Marist to just 30% (16 of 53) shooting.
The contest extended UConn’s streak of not losing back-to-back games to an astounding 429 games. It was the 171st consecutive home-court win over non-ranked opponents.
Fifi Camara and Meg Dahlman scored 12 and 10 points respectively for Marist.
The Huskies now advance to the Quarterfinal Round of the 2005 Preseason WNIT where they will entertain Indiana State on Monday, November 14. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion and the game will be televised by CPTV.
Game Notes
ü With tonight’s win, UConn advances to the quarterfinals of the Preseason WNIT and will host Indiana State Monday at 7PM at Gampel Pavilion.
ü UConn improves to 9-0 all-time in the preseason WNIT following tonight’s win over Marist.
ü With tonight’s win, the Huskies improve to 24-8 all-time in season openers; 17-4 since Geno Auriemma took over the program’s reign in the 1985-1986 season.
ü UConn improves to 27-5 all-time in home openers and have won its last 15 straight
ü UConn improves to 3-0 all-time vs. Marist.
ü UConn improves to 24-7 all-time vs. opponents from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
ü Tonight’s game marked the 90th consecutive sellout at Gampel Pavilion.
ü UConn improves to 211-16 all-time at Gampel Pavilion and is 59-1 in their last 60 games at the facility.
ü UConn improves to 212-8 at home since the 1992-1994 season.
ü With tonight’s win, UConn extended its streak of games without back-to-back losses to 429 consecutive games.
ü UConn improves to 235-6 all-time in games televised on CPTV.
ü With tonight’s win, UConn extends its home-court winning streak vs. non-ranked opponents to 171 consecutive games.
ü Mel Thomas’s 23 points marked a new career high.
ü Mel Thomas’s four 3-point field goals tied her career high.
Post Game Quotes
University of Connecticut
| | |
On Mel Thomas
“She’s such a confidence player that she needs to feel really good about herself. She needs to feed off of the good things that happen to her. Mel’s had a great pre-season. She was great in September and she’s been really good since practice started. Tonight was just a carry over of all the things that she’s done since school started. The more shots she makes the more it opens things up for other people and the more aggressive she becomes. That’s something that we didn’t have last season.”
On the all guard line-up in the second half
“They really picked up the tempo a little bit defensively. There were opportunities to put the ball on the floor and we weren’t doing that in the first half. In the second half the guards really stepped up, Ketia (Swanier) especially. She changed the whole complexion of the game.”
What did you say to your post players at half time?
“Obviously you just comment on what happened in the first half. The rebounding aspect was really big with us at half time and some of the defensive lapses, I thought, were really big. Free throws were really big. I really pointed out all the things that happened in the first half and basically said, we’re going to go with this line-up and see what happens.”
“Brittany’s still a little bit nervous. I’m trying to convince her that when you’re not quite sure what to do with the ball, shooting it is usually not a good option. She’ll be alright.”
Kalana (Greene) didn’t really play like a freshman in the second half, did she?
“No. She’s just too talented. She just does too many things that good basketball players do. The way she handles the pressure, she doesn’t really hesitate at times. When she knows what she wants to do, she’s unbelievably good as you saw tonight. It’s only when she’s not quite sure what she wants to do that she gets herself into a little bit of trouble. She made a couple of plays that guys that have been here for four years can’t do.”
Was there a message on minutes that you were sending out tonight?
“When you have eight or nine or ten players, five of them have to be good. I don’t care which five but five of them have to play well. It’s a good sign that you can go to plan B. A lot of times last year, there was no plan B. There was plan A1, A2, A3 but there was no plan B. We were stuck but I don’t know if we’re stuck anymore. But that’s tonight against Marist. If we try to pull the same stunt against someone that’s a lot bigger and more talented, it might not work. I don’t want to go through the season playing with five guards. I don’t know if we can accomplish our goals playing with five guards.”
For Barbara, Brittany and Charde, what were their attitudes after the game?
“They were still positive. They were happy for us that we played well as a team in the second half, but it’s hard when you know that you can contribute and you’re not doing what you can. I’m sure their attitudes are like, ‘I want to get back out there and prove that, that’s not me, that’s not how I can play.’”
You and Mel were in a great rhythm during the second half, why were you able to get in that kind of rhythm?
“I think that this is this year; we’ve been trying to really be more aggressive offensively and defensively by tracking and running the ball. With Ketia and Renee as point guards we have a lot of quickness that we haven’t had since I’ve been here, so I think that’s been something that’s helped Mel and me and gets us all going a little bit.”
Were there more opportunities in the second half because you were more aggressive?
“Yes, offensively in the first half it was kind of slow and kind of like we were just going through the motions it didn’t look like we were cutting hard, screening hard or doing anything that we needed to do. In the second half we really made an effort to go to the basket and to look to be more aggressive.”
What would you have done better this game?
“I think I could have stepped up on defense and I made a few mistakes on the defensive end that I resent but its all part of learning.”
Why was the all guard line up in the second half so effective?
“With Ketia and Renee in at the same time, we were able to get after it on defense and we could push the ball up the court and I just think we played a lot better defense.”
Would you say you were confident this game, especially in the second half?
“I think our whole team is a lot more positive and that helps me personally and everybody.”
What do you take away from a game like this?
“I think we know that we have to come after it ever single night and if we don’t, we’re not going to look good at all, like we did in the first half.”
Marist College
| |
:
“For about 25 minutes we did a great job. Obviously Geno made an adjustment the second half. Once he found that line-up it we didn’t have an answer for the all-guard line-up. It was tremendous line-up. They are a terrific defense and they showed that they were UConn in the second half.”
“I told the kids that they did a great job. We were trying to take away their (UConn) post-game. The only disappointment is we lost some transition in the second half. We are usually a real good scout team, but we need to have a better inside game and learn how to break people down more.”
:
“We were not nervous. We were excited to playing against UConn. We knew we had nothing to lose.”
:
“I felt like you had a brick wall behind you.” “ I am glad to be playing again. I’ve waited a long time and it felt like home.”
