The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Stevens stars as Huskies roll to 96-62 win over Michigan State
U Conn has no problems on way to PK80 event win
EUGENE, Ore. — The first time Azurá Stevens passed up an open 3-pointer, it barely raised an eyebrow. But when it happened again in the early stages of Saturday’s showdown at the PK 80-Phil Knight Invitational, it became abundantly clear that U Conn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma had indicated to Stevens that he’s not a fan of 6-foot-6 shooting guards.
Stevens, who didn’t have much of an impact in the Huskies’ first game on its current road trip, shook off a bit of a sluggish start to lead top-ranked U Conn to a 96-62 win over Michigan State in the first game of a doubleheader at the University of Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena.
Stevens had 25 points, 16 rebounds and five assists, all her top marks in the first season she is eligible to play for the Huskies. Stevens also surpassed the 1,000-point career mark, counting the 938 she scored in two seasons at Duke.
“I didn’t settle for jump shots,” Stevens said. “I wanted to get started inside, and maybe later on, if the 3 opened up, I’d shoot them.”
Stevens had 19 points and 13 rebounds in the second and third quarters, and it is not a coincidence that those happened to be the Huskies’ two best offensive quarters in the game.
“I guess I’m old-fashioned when I come to that,” Auriemma said. “I think the players should play to their stature. When you’re
6-5, 6-6 and all you want to do is stand there and shoot 3s, you’re not a basketball player; you’re a guy who just likes to shoot the basketball. That first quarter I wasn’t too thrilled and got her to be more aggressive; she was a lot better in the second quarter and in the second half because we got her moving. she went to the offensive glass, she did things that basketball players do. A lot of the stuff is brand new to her. She’s used to standing in one spot; we’re trying to get her to move and that’s not natural. Those guys were pretty big out there, and she had a pretty good day.”
Stevens had plenty of help.
Kia Nurse had 20 points and five assists; Napheesa Collier 14 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, five steals and three blocked shots; and Crystal Dangerfield had 10 points and a career-high 10 assists for UConn (5-0).
UConn outscored Michigan State 30-2 in points in the paint in the first half and had just two turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. Nurse did much of her damage on the fast break, while Collier and Stevens dominated inside against a Michigan State team that got injured senior forward Taya Reimer back after she had missed the last two games.
UConn missed nine of its last 10 shots (going 0 for 6 from 3-point range) in the first quarter and struggled to get into a rhythm in the half-court offense in the early going.
“The first quarter was all us rebounding, outletting and us going down and shooting the ball,” Auriemma said. “The second and third quarter was us playing basketball the way we play. It still comes down to how good your guards are. If your guards are good, you have to be a pretty good team. Crystal’s gotten to be really good. She has a good feel for what we want, a great feel for the game, who is where and what they can do, and Kia’s playing in a way that because of Crystal has allowed her to be what she’s really good at, so I think the two of them are doing a great job controlling the tempo of the game, where the ball goes, how it gets there and making enough shots to keep everybody honest.”
Freshman Sidney Cooks led Michigan State (4-1) with 11 points and eight rebounds. Andra EspinozaHunter was UConn’s topscoring freshman with eight points in seven minutes of play.
It was the third straight game UConn played without top scorer Katie Lou Samuelson, who suffered a foot injury in a Nov. 17 win over California. She is not expected to play in the Huskies’ game at Nevada on Tuesday. In her first comments since suffering the injury, Samuelson said she will be re-evaluated when the team returns from the road trip.