The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn women defeat South Florida to win AAC tournament
UConn rolls to continue AAC dominance
UNCASVILLE — The faces of the opponents might change, but the drill is always the same.
Dribble, pass, cut, pass and score. And score. And score. And score. The UConn women’s basketball program has been so stunningly dominant in conference play that the Huskies have not only never lost an American Athletic Conference game, but opposing teams are usually left promoting the fact that a strong fourth quarter against the reserve players is something to hang their hats on.
With the exception of one game against Tulane last season, the Huskies have barely needed to break a sweat en route to winning their first 100 AAC games. There are times when it seems as if UConn could decide which player it wanted to score and which one should be credited with an assist on nearly every possession.
South Florida wasn’t able to make history by upsetting the Huskies in Tuesday’s AAC tournament title game at Mohegan Sun Arena but the Bulls certainly made the top-seeded and undefeated conference juggernaut work for the 70-54 victory before a crowd of 7,501.
Especially in the first quarter, the USF players were in position to prevent the back-door layups while also getting out on the perimeter to limit the number of open looks for the nation’s No. 1 scoring team.
“We wanted to keep them in front of us, make sure if they were going to make shots, they were challenged shots,” USF coach Jose Fernandez said. “They made some very tough shots in that second quarter. The key thing was
keeping them in front of us and limiting them to one shot.”
In recent UConn-USF games, the Bulls ran early and often which usually is a recipe for disaster. This time out, unless there was a wide-open look for one of their top offensive options, USF ran the shot clock inside of 10 or even 5 seconds before attempting a shot.
The strategy worked for a while especially when the Huskies missed 9 of 13 shots at one stretch to allow the Bulls to stay within striking range. Unlike last year’s laugher of a conference title game or the two regular-season meetings this season, the Huskies did not start building a commanding lead shortly after the opening tip.
“We played them three times every year so I think we expected them to kind of have the scout down,” said UConn senior forward Gabby Williams, who had 19 points, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals in her return to the court after a sore hip forced her to miss the last game and a half. “We are working a lot on the multiple options of our offense, making sure when things break down we aren’t running around like crazy.”
Williams hit the 1,500point plateau during the game as did junior forward Napheesa Collier (12 points) while Katie Lou Samuelson finished with 12 points to join Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and Kara Wolters as the only UConn players to score in double digits in each of her first nine conference tournament games.
“I think they were stopping our first option a lot so we got away from setting our screens and making our cuts hard,” said UConn sophomore guard Crystal Dangerfield, who had six assists and no turnovers to go with eight points and three steals. “Once we settled down and did that, it got better.”
USF trailed by 22 points at the end of the first quarter when the teams met in January and by 17 heading into the second quarter in the regular-season finale for both teams on Feb. 26. Three times in the first quarter the Bulls trailed by one a point, the last coming on a Maria Jespersen basket with 10 seconds left in the opening period before Dangerfield drove the baseline and kicked the ball out to Kia Nurse for a buzzerbeating 3-pointer. Samuelson scored with 5 seconds left in the first half to cap a 14-3 run to give UConn a 14-point lead as the 32-0 Huskies head into the NCAA tournament undefeated for the ninth time.
“I knew, I was ready for the game kind of playing out the way it played out, there was not going to be a repeat of the first two times, that was not going to happen at this time of the year for that kind of stuff,” Geno Auriemma said after winning his 23rd conference tournament title as UConn’s head coach. “Yhey are too good and (Kitija) Laksa is just too good to keep under wraps for three straight games. When you have somebody like Gabby and she plays like she plays tonight, it is fun to watch and they don’t have anybody on the team who can handle stuff like that. She got some help but without her, especially coming off last night, there was no way that (they) would win.”
Azura’ Stevens came off the bench to contribute 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. She finished the tournament with 49 points, 29 rebounds and nine blocked shots to become the first UConn reserve to be named the Most Outstanding Player in a conference tournament since Charde Houston in 2008.
“It is a credit to my teammates and the coaching staff,” Stevens said. “Honestly, they did a good job of finding me in good spots and making my job pretty easy.”
Laksa, who was held scoreless in the first meeting against UConn this season, finished with 26 points for USF (26-7).
UConn is expected to be the No. 1 overall seed when the NCAA tournament pairings are announced on Monday,