The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
UConn survives at UCF
Huskies’ offensive woes continue, but they remain perfect in AAC play
ORLANDO, Fla. — Once again, UConn’s offense was stuck in neutral, unable to produce with any consistency or efficiency.
Perhaps, the Huskies can take solace in the fact that their opponent’s was worse.
The fourth-Huskies shot poorly and played sloppily, but managed to hold off UCF 59-52 Thursday in a slog of a game.
“They’re going to make the game as slow as possible. They’re going to slow you down by their zone and they’re going to slow you down by their offense,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma
said. “So if you’re not careful, you get caught in that kind of malaise.”
The Huskies seemed to fall into the trap. They won, of course, but not because they played particularly well. In fact, of the 126 straight games they’ve won in American Athletic Conference play, this was only the second decided by single digits.
The Knights were especially woeful in the second quarter, when they missed all eight shots and scored a measly three points, allowing the Huskies (15-1, 6-0) to grab control.
UConn ripped off 16 unanswered points in the quarter to go into halftime up 29-16, then held on from there. UCF (9-6, 1-2) climbed as close as nine points at 44-37 with 6:55 remaining, but a 3-pointer by Anna Makurat provided the Huskies with a bit of breathing room.
Three Huskies scored in double figures, led by Megan Walker’s 19 points. Crystal Dangerfield scored 13 and Makurat added 10.
“We go through stretches where we do a lot of really, really good things,” Auriemma said. “We go through stretches where people can’t score on us, it doesn’t matter who it is, it doesn’t matter what team, it doesn’t matter where we are.”
The Huskies are still trying to find that same dominance on offense. They ran into the same issues they experienced at Memphis. Too many possessions resulted in hurried shots — or, in some cases, no shots at all. During one particular stretch in the first quarter, the Huskies were hit with back-to-back shot clock violations. They finished with 18 turnovers and shot only 38.5 percent.
“That’s just us not being aware,” Walker added. “We’ve got to do a better job of that. That’s on the seniors and stuff.”
Added Dangerfield: “We
were moving the ball side to side and not getting the ball in the middle, where they would’ve been wide open.”
UCF used a 7-0 run to grab an 11-9 lead, but the quarter ended with the teams tied at 13-13. The Knights sank a trio of free throws to retake a 16-13 lead, but didn’t score again over the final 7 minutes and 57 seconds of the quarter. It certainly didn’t help that, during that stretch of offensive futility, point guard Kay Kay Wright — the AAC preseason co-player of the year with Dangerfield — spent some time on the bench in foul trouble.
Wright led UCF with 18 points. Sianni Martin scored 10 and Masseny Kaba had nine points and 10 rebounds.
The Huskies will next be in action Sunday at Gampel Pavilion for a noon tip-off against Tulsa.
Notable: UConn improved to 12-0 all-time against UCF … The Huskies have won 200 straight games against unranked opponents since losing to St. John’s on Feb. 18, 2012.