Huskies Win Chippy at UCF
The Story: The women’s basketball team coasted to a 78-41 win at UCF yesterday afternoon. Napheesa Collier ended her streak of eight consecutive games with at least 20 points, but she still put together her 14th double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
SCRAPPING FOR A WIN: Though the Huskies (23-2, 11-0) easily handled the Knights (20-5, 9-3), the second-best team in the conference, it wasn’t pretty. A physical, chippy game from the start manifested itself twice late in the second quarter, when Katie Lou Samuelson was fouled by Brittney Smith and was seen holding her ribs and shouting in anger. She then got into a bit of a spat with a player on UCF’s bench who said she flopped after drawing a foul just before halftime.
“It’s a physical game,” Samuelson told reporters afterward. “I’m not the strongest person out there. I know that. I’m not pushing people out of the way. So, whatever people think is what they think, but I’m still going to play the same way I play every day.”
FIVE IN DOUBLE FIGURES: Megan Walker scored 13 points for the Huskies and Christyn Williams continued her bounce back with 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting. Crystal Dangerfield also had another complete game, scoring 12 points with seven assists and six rebounds.
CLIMBING THE CHARTS: Although she failed to make a field goal for the first time since she went 0-for-1 in three minutes against Florida State in her freshman season, Samuelson, who took five 3-pointers and missed all of them, went 12-for-12 from the free throw line. That was enough for her to move into fourth place on UConn’s all-time scoring list, passing Kerry Bascom, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Nykesha Sales with 2,188 career points. Collier, meanwhile, moved into No. 6 in the Huskies’ all-time rebounding list, passing Jamelle Elliott with 1,062 career boards.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: The Huskies claimed a 23-4 lead after the first quarter and held a 34-17 lead at halftime as UCF tried to muscle its way back into the game. They also had a 38-25 advantage in rebounding and outscored the Knights in the paint, 28-18. What was a concern is that they committed a season-high 21 turnovers, though the damage was minimal as UCF scored just 14 points off the Huskies’ mistakes. And, on Friday, we suggested an over/under of 45 minutes for the Huskies’ reserves; they played 44 minutes, with Olivia Nelson-Ododa scoring nine points in 21 minutes — her second-greatest workload of the season.
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “Every game’s played different. Some games it’s all running up and down and scoring 95 points and making it look easy, and some games are ‘grind it out’ games. It’s nothing unusual when we play Central Florida. The games are always like this. You’ve got to make some tough plays, and you can’t get caught up in the nonsense, either. I thought we handled it great.”
MOVING UP? The Huskies are poised to move up to at least No. 3 in the polls today after No. 2 Louisville lost at home to No. 20 Miami yesterday afternoon. Baylor, which has a 15-game winning streak, should remain the top team in the country, so it’s up to the voters to decide whether UConn or No. 3 Oregon, which received three first-place votes last week, is the better team.
UP NEXT: A chance for the bench players to make their mark as the Huskies welcome Memphis (10-15, 5-7) to the XL Center on Wednesday. Oddly, the Tigers beat Tulane on Saturday, one game after the Green Wave beat UCF. What a wild conference.
Baseball Sets Tone With Wins vs. Louisville
The Story: The baseball team pulled off the unexpected, taking a season-opening three-game series in Lakeland, Florida, against No. 4 Louisville after winning 8-3 yesterday afternoon.
AN EPIC WEEKEND: The Huskies had not won a game against a top-five opponent since 2001 and never under coach Jim Penders. They also did it without their ace, left-hander Mason Feole, who is one of the best pitchers in the country but will miss a few weeks as he recovers from a triceps injury, and mostly without heralded freshman catcher Pat Winkel, who injured a hamstring in the sixth inning of Friday’s game and did not play again.
HOW’D THEY DO IT? UConn got six strong innings on Friday from senior right-hander Jeff Kersten, who allowed one run on five hits, and Paul Gozzo, in for Winkel, hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning. Saturday’s game was revenge for the Cardinals, who did all of their damage in the first four innings before the Huskies’ bullpen held them in check.
And yesterday, Penders turned to Johnny Wholestaff as UConn tried to close it out, with six pitchers taking the mound. Joe Simeone started and lasted three innings, Avery Santos earned the win by pitching the fourth and fifth, CJ Dandeneau went 2 ⅔ innings and Jacob Wallace picked up the save. Meanwhile, sophomore second baseman Christian Fedko hit a grand slam in the third inning for a 4-1 lead and first baseman Chris Winkel drove in two runs and scored twice.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN? The Huskies have been one of the stronger teams in their conference under Penders, who succeeded Andy Baylock in 2004, and every few years seem to put together a fantastic season, including five NCAA tournament appearances in the last nine years. The Huskies are sure to return to the rankings after receiving votes in the preseason polls, and yes, it’s early, but the combination of the preseason hype, and then two wins over a program such as Louisville, hint at this being a fantastic season for UConn.
WHAT DID PENDERS SAY? “We need to not get caught up in what happened. It’s one weekend. We took two out of three. That’s our job. That’s the expectation. That’s where the bar is set. You’re supposed to win series and we just took series one.”
UP NEXT: UConn, which is scheduled to play just one of its first 22 games at home, will travel to South Carolina for a three-game series next weekend against the College of Charleston (3-0).
Walker Celebrated at All-Star Game
The Story: Everybody loves Kemba Walker, and he was absolutely adored last night as the Charlotte Hornets’ lone representative during the NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte.
WALKING ON SUNSHINE: Walker scored four points but had a game-high eight assists for Team Giannis in a 178-164 loss to Team LeBron. Selected to the game as a starter for the first time, the points were the fewest Walker has had in his three All-Star Game appearances and he missed all five of his 3-point attempts — including a first-half buzzer beater that the hometown crowd so desperately wanted to go in. Still, nothing will take the shine off of his weekend.
TODAY’S HERO: Although the Hornets used the All-Star Game as a homecoming of sorts not only for Stephen Curry, who was raised in the area as his father, Dell Curry, starred for the team in the 1990s, it was also a chance for Larry Johnson, Muggsy Bogues, Kendall Gill and other Charlotte legends to reconnect with the fanbase. But in a way, Walker overshadowed that, from the chanting that took place at the arena during the media day festivities to his rousing ovations throughout the game itself.
It’s an interesting situation for Walker, whose contract expires after the season and is set to face free agency for the first time. Walker has said that he will be open to staying in Charlotte should ownership put players around him who can help him win a championship — no matter how unlikely it seems — and so the weekend also served as a way for the Hornets’ fans to express their appreciation for a player who became the all-time leading scorer in Charlotte professional basketball history a year ago.
ON THE MAP: Just like Walker put the Huskies on his shoulders and carried them to a national title, he has embraced a leadership role in Charlotte. “Kemba, he’s breaking all these records, and it’s unbelievable to see how he’s one, established himself as a premier NBA player, but to do it here in Charlotte and get the city behind him and give them something to root for, it’s truly special,” the younger Curry said after the game. “It’s something that I respect so much from his standpoint. Hopefully, he stays here for a long time. Who knows how that will work out?”
LeBron James expressed similar thoughts. “First of all, it’s incredible to be able to have your first all-star start in your home building, and for that to be today, for Kemba, it’s been great. He’s the all-time leader in points for a reason, but he’s made this franchise relevant because of his maturation process and the way he’s continued to get better and better each and every year.”
HOMETOWN PRIDE: Walker was treasured during his time at UConn not just by fans, but also by his coaches and teammates. Jim Calhoun recalled a memorable scene in Hawaii in 2010, when, after winning the Maui Invitational, he was mobbed on the team bus as it left the Lahaina Civic Center.
It goes without saying not only that the Huskies could use a player like Walker this season, but also that the NBA could use more UConn talent. Aside from Walker, the only UConn players in the league are Rudy Gay, Andre Drummond, Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier, with Daniel Hamilton and Rodney Purvis in the G-League. Not too long ago, UConn could boast of having more than a dozen players in the NBA. That pipeline needs to start flowing again.
Morning Reads
UNLIKELY ENDING: Even though the men’s hockey team defeated BU on Friday, a loss on Saturday means it needs to win all four of its remaining games, with Maine to lose all four, in order to make the Hockey East tournament. (The UConn Blog)
MORE HARTFORD: The construction of a new on-campus stadium hasn’t prevented UConn from looking at the refurbished Dillon Stadium in Hartford as the potential site of future home games. (Hartford Business)
RETURN OF THE ‘MACK: Danielle Fox and Morgan Wabick scored in the first period, but Merrimack scored twice in the second period as the women’s hockey team followed a loss in the first game on Friday with a tie in the second on Saturday. (UConnHuskies.com)
STILL SEARCHING: The women’s lacrosse team struggled against defending national champion James Madison, losing 18-9 yesterday afternoon in Maryland to fall to 0-3. (UConnHuskies.com)
JAYS SOAR: A win over Regis means Jim Calhoun has led Saint Joseph into the GNAC playoffs in his first season, with the Blue Jays earning the No. 7 seed in the eight-team tournament. (USJBlueJays.com)
