The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Huskies shake off Bobcats
UConn earns 25th consecutive trip to women’s Sweet 16
STORRS — Less than a minute after Paula Strautmane’s lone 3-pointer found the bottom of the basket, the ball found its way into the hands of the reliable Quinnipiac junior for another wide open 3-pointer.
The Bobcats, who have earned a reputation as a giant killer in the last two NCAA tournaments, were in position to pull within five points of the biggest goliath of them all midway through the second half. However, Strautmane’s shot was off the mark as was one by Jen Fay on the Bobcats’ next possession.
The always opportunistic UConn women’s basketball team made sure Quinnipiac’s window of opportunity was brief, scoring after both of those Bobcat misses on its way to a 71-46 victory in front of 8,957 at Gampel Pavilion on Monday night to punch to ticket to the Sweet 16 for the 25th year in a row.
“I think we knew that we weren’t going to win it in the first couple of minutes, so we just kind of had to chip away and that was (Kia Nurse) hitting that 3 and trying to get open,” UConn senior forward Gabby Williams said. “It wasn’t going to be one of those games where we get
10 points in one minute, we had to chip away at it and eventually we got the lead that we wanted.
“Teams that like to play us like that don’t really execute, but they were able to stay disciplined and I think that goes to show how well coached they are and what kind of players they have.”
Quinnipiac’s willingness to stick to a game plan that was just instituted a day earlier gave the Bobcats the best chance of hanging with the 11-time national champions. It was clear there would be no replay of a 97-point UConn win — the result in the only previous meeting between the programs.
“When you play in the NCAA tournament, you are shocked when an open 3 doesn’t go in because every time you make a mistake, some kid makes an open 3, you can put that in the bank,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “When those two didn’t go in, I was probably the most surprised person in the building. This team has a knack of making a shot when we have to, making a play when we have to. We didn’t get great performances from a lot of players tonight, but that is going to happen. You have to be able to win no matter what the circumstances.”
The circumstances in the second round game couldn’t have been more different from the recordbreaking offensive outburst in UConn’s tournament opener on Saturday. On that day St. Francis (Pa.) left UConn players open on almost every possession and tried to get itself as many possessions as possible.
Quinnipiac opened play at a more methodical pace, usually not starting its offense until less than 10 seconds remained on the 30-second shot clock. Still, the MAAC regular season and tournament champions, were able to get many of the shots it wanted.
“I’ve always said that any kind of a shot is better than a bad pass so they weren’t in a hurry so they never really turned the ball over a lot so they were able to get a shot. Sometimes it wasn’t a great shot but they were able to get a shot,” Auriemma said. “Anytime you get a shot you are able to set up your defense, I would have done the same thing if I were Trish (Fabbri, Quinnipiac’s coach). We either are going to win 50-48 or lose 70-50, that is a chance you take because you know you aren’t going to score a lot of points.”
UConn (34-0) used a late flurry in the second quarter to take the 33-18 lead at halftime. The Bobcats, winners of three NCAA tournament games in the last two seasons, were down by 20 late in the third quarter leading to the Bobcats to abandon their methodical offensive approach.
“We knew we were going to give ourselves a chance shortening the game, we were a little choppy in a lack of prep in changing our whole offensive style to start,” Fabbri said. “I think we were a little bit rushed when it did come open to get the shot off so we were a little bit quick in our complete rhythm offensively but we handled the whole first half how we wanted to play them, we couldn’t have handled it any better.”
The one area the Bobcats struggled was contending with the size of UConn’s duo of Napheesa Collier and Azurá Stevens who combined for 37 points.
Collier had 23 points, Stevens had 14 and Nurse added 13 for UConn, which advanced to meet Duke in Saturday’s regional semifinal.
UConn has reached the regionals in each of the 25 seasons since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams.
Tennessee, with 27 straight trips to the regionals ending with a opening round loss in 2009 has the longest streak.
It was the final collegiate game in Connecticut for UConn seniors Nurse and Williams, who never lost a game in the state of Connecticut during their time as Huskies.
Fay had 12 points and Carly Fabbri, playing in her final game at Quinnipiac (28-6), had four assists.