University of Connecticut Athletics
Win and Advance!
3/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (March 26, 2006) – Senior Barbara Turner (Cleveland, Ohio) hit a fadeaway three-pointer with 1.8 seconds remaining on the clock to give the No. 2 seed University of Connecticut women’s basketball team the 77-75 victory over No. 3 seed Georgia on Sunday night in the Bridgeport Regional Semifinal, held at the Arena At Harbor Yard. With the win, UConn advances to the Regional Final.
The Huskies are now 32-4 overall while Georgia closes out the season with a 23-9 mark. It was the first time that the two teams had met in NCAA Tournament play and UConn now holds a 3-1 overall record against the Bulldogs.
With her closing trey, Turner scored a career-high 31 points, 19 of which came in the second half of play. She also pulled down nine rebounds in the victory. Two other Huskies scored in double-figures on the game, with freshman Renee Montgomery (St. Albans, W.Va.) netting 13 and senior Ann Strother (Castle Rock, Colo.) also tallying 13.
The Huskies started slow offensively to open the game, spotting Georgia the first two points of the contest. Strother picked up her first basket with 16:28 remaining in the half to give UConn the 6-4 advantage, but the Bulldogs went on a 10-0 run over five minutes to take a 25-10 lead.
The Huskies battled back, however, and went on a 22-1 run of their own to reclaim the lead. The run was keyed by three clutch three-point baskets by Montgomery, who also scored 11 of UConn’s 22 points during the run. In addition to her heroics, both Turner and sophomore Ketia Swanier (Columbus, Ga.) had four points in that span.
Georgia’s 15 point lead at the 6:40 mark was their largest of the game and was also the largest deficit that the Huskies overcame in a victory on the season.
The second half opened as the Turner Show with the senior scoring six of UConn’s eight points to open the stanza. The two teams traded points back and forth throughout the opening five minutes of action, with UConn keeping a tenuous hold on lead throughout that span.
Georgia knotted the score at 47 all with 12:42 remaining after a short 7-0 run over two minutes. A lay up by Swanier gave the Huskies back the lead, but the Bulldogs tied it back up on the next play and the two teams battled back-and-forth for the next 10 minutes as to who was going to hold on to the advantage.
A lay up by Turner gave UConn a three-point lead at 71-68 with 1:42 remaining, but Georgia came right back with a shot from behind the arc from Cori Chambers to tie the score again. Every play by the Huskies over the remaining minute was answered by the Bulldogs, who took a one-point advantage back on a three-pointer by Alexis Kendrick with just 20 seconds left. Both Georgia and UConn took consecutive timeouts in an attempt to plan out the time that was left.
The Huskies had possession of the basketball coming out of the time outs, but none of the UConn guards could find an open set of hands to send the ball at the hoop. Montgomery finally found Turner on the wing with just under two ticks remaining and the senior buried the three and extended her UConn career.
For the game, UConn was 28-for-58 from the floor for a 48.3% shooting percentage and Georgia shot 41.1% for the game, including a 50% effort in the second half. The Huskies were out-rebounded by the Bulldogs, 35-29, and pulled down just 12 boards on the offensive end. Leading the way on the boards was Turner with her nine, and she was followed by Strother with five. Swanier had nine points in the win for UConn, two shy of her career-high, and sophomore Charde Houston (San Diego, Calif.) added seven.
Leading the way for Georgia was Tasha Humphrey with 27 points. She also pulled down seven boards in the loss for the Bulldogs. In addition to Humphrey, two other Bulldogs tallied double-figure points, with Sherrill Baker picking up 19 and Kendrick scoring 14.
The Huskies will return to action on Tuesday, March 28 when they will face No. 1 seed Duke in the Bridgeport Regional Final with a berth in the 2006 NCAA Women’s Final Four on the line. Game time is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. and can be seen live on ESPN.
