The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Pointing the way
With Dangerfield on the bench, Walker guides makeshift lineup
DAYTON, Ohio — Coming into the season, Geno Auriemma's greatest fear was how his team's offense would operate without Crystal Dangerfield in the driver's seat.
Turns out, he didn't need to wait too long for an answer.
Tuesday against Dayton, fourthranked UConn was left to do all its work without Dangerfield, who was sidelined because of back spasms. Her absence made things more difficult at times, but not crippling.
That's because the Huskies still had a healthy dose of talent left over. Megan Walker, in particular, stepped up, notching a doubledouble in a 7537 victory before a crowd of 4,348 at UD Arena.
“Without Crystal — she's another threat on our offense — me and Christyn (Williams) had to be extra aggressive tonight,” Walker said.
Auriemma relayed that message to Walker before tipoff, telling her to shoot whenever she touched the ball. The junior nodded her head in approval, scoring a gamehigh 23 points (all through three quarters) on 9of19 from the floor. She also collected 12 rebounds.
“If you want to be on a championship team, then you've got to play like a championship player every night,” Auriemma said. “Tonight was a great opportunity to do that, and she did.”
Williams and Olivia NelsonOdoda scored 14 points apiece, while NelsonOdoda also had eight rebounds and seven blocks.
Walker, a twoyear starter, was one of the familiar faces in a makeshift lineup. Senior Molly Bent drew her first career start in place of Dangerfield, and Kyla Irwin got the nod over Anna Makurat, who was benched for part of Sunday's win over Ohio State. All things considered, the Huskies' operation was pretty smooth. They shot well, hitting 50 percent of their fieldgoal attempts, and defended well.
“I thought we were pretty aggressive on the offensive end,” Auriemma said. “Our defense was better than it was on Sunday, that's for sure. I think we did a lot of really good
things. I think that helped our offense a little bit. We got out running a little more.”
The Huskies held Dayton, a team picked to finish second in the Atlantic10, to 20 percent shooting, including 4of25 from 3point range. The Flyers were held to 15 points in the second half and finished with a seasonlow output. Jayla Scaife, an allconference forward, shot just 3of14 and finished with 12 points.
UConn jumped out early on Dayton, grabbing a 249 lead thanks to a 130 run. The lead grew to 4122 at halftime behind Walker’s 11 points and 11 rebounds and NelsonOdoda’s 12 points.
Dangerfield’s back started hurting Monday, and with Thanksgiving break ahead, the team decided to play it safe and let her rest. That left the Huskies with just eight healthy players, including NelsonOdoda, who is nursing a broken left pinky toe.
The injury woes then continued in the second quarter, when Makurat limped off after rolling her left ankle. She was back on the floor to begin the third quarter, but played barely two minutes before returning to the bench. She finished with six points in 11 minutes.
“I don’t have an update other than what I saw,” Auriemma said of Makurat. “I saw her turn it, she gave it a shot, and she didn’t feel like she could push off on it..”
Irwin had eight points, six rebounds and six assists and Bent scored four points.
“It takes everybody to contribute and to pull off a win like this,” NelsonOdoda said. “When we’re down a player, or what happened in the middle of the game with Anna, I think it’s important for everybody to just realize their roles and kind of step up.”
Said Auriemma: “I thought we did a great job without Crystal, considering. We haven’t had to play without her this year, not to say that I want to because I don’t. On the road, short notice, we did a pretty good job.”
The Huskies will have an eightday break before returning to action Dec. 5 at Seton Hall.
NelsonOdoda recovering: NelsonOdoda revealed the cause of her broken toe, saying she stubbed it Wednesday on the metal leg of her kitchen table. After she was unable to walk on it the following day, she went for Xrays.
Doctors have assured her she can’t make the injury worse and it’s a pain tolerance issue only.
“We have really good trainers that have been able to do treatment and stuff for it — as much as you can do for that. I’ve been trying to handle it as well as I can,” NelsonOdoda said. Not so fast: Louisville coach Jeff Walz said Monday on his radio show that the Cardinals will play UConn next season. However, a representative from UConn said the schools are still in discussions and that nothing has been finalized.
The Huskies currently have 32 games scheduled for next season — three over the limit — so they’ll need to do some maneuvering to fit in Louisville. The Huskies are playing 16 conference games this year, but will go to 20 in the Big East.