The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Ducks snap Huskies’ streak
Oregon overwhelms UConn in top-5 matchup
STORRS — The start was troublesome for UConn.
Turns out, so was the ending.
Fourth-ranked UConn’s big showdown with No. 3 Oregon wasn’t a showdown at all, but rather a clinic by a national championship contender.
The Huskies certainly didn’t look like one Monday. Oregon jumped ahead by 14 points in the first half and nursed a double-digit lead in the second, handing the Huskies a discouraging 74-56 loss.
“We can’t look like that if we want to play for national championships,” said freshman Anna Makurat, who finished with 13 points. “We can’t just look like somebody’s older, somebody’s more experienced. We have to fight them. I don’t think we fought them tonight.”
The Ducks (20-2) didn’t just beat the Huskies (19-2), they handed them their worst loss ever at Gampel Pavilion. The Huskies had won 66 straight games on campus dating to Jan. 5, 2013 against Notre Dame. That’s also the last time the Huskies dropped multiple home games in the same season.
“They’re so good,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “They took advantage of every mistake we made.”
The Ducks were too experienced and too talented to handle, especially with Sabrina Ionescu running the point. All five starters scored in double figures, led by senior Ruthy Hebard’s 22 points. Satou Sabally scored 17. Ionescu
finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, narrowly missing her 24th career triple-double.
The Ducks’ lead ranged between 12 and 20 points in the third. With the game out of reach midway through the fourth, a portion of the sellout crowd of 10,167 began streaming toward the exits.
Oregon coach Kelly Graves said of the win: “It means a lot. This is hallowed ground, so to speak. This is one personally I’ll remember for a long time. Who doesn’t look up to Geno?”
Crystal Dangerfield scored 19 points for UConn, but didn’t get much help. Megan Walker (eight points) and Christyn Williams (five points), two players the Huskies needed to be great, shot a combined 5-of-25.
“When two really good teams are playing, there’s a couple players on their team that have to play really, really well and have to make shots. And there’s a couple players on your team that have to play well and make shots,” Auriemma said. “Theirs did tonight and ours didn’t.”
It was that simple at times. The Ducks had Hebard and Sabally and the Huskies didn’t. The Ducks had Ionescu and the Huskies didn’t.
UConn was dominated in the paint, outscored 44-14.
“Physically, we couldn’t match up with them,” Auriemma said.
The Huskies’ only lead was 2-0. Oregon responded with 10 straight points, prompting a quick Huskies timeout. The Huskies got back within five, but a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Sabally gave the Ducks a 22-12 lead after one quarter.
The Ducks used another 10-2 spurt to build a 27-14 lead in the second. Once again, UConn answered, A 3-pointer by Williams sliced it to 34-28. However, Oregon led 44-31 at halftime — this after Walker shot only 1-of-11. Walker finished with eight points.
UConn will look to bounce back on Friday at home against Memphis before visiting No. 1 South Carolina next Monday.
Honoring Kobe: Auriemma wore a Kobe Bryant (No. 8) shirt under his jacket to honor his late friend. The NBA legend and his daughter, Gianna, 13, were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles on Jan. 26.
“I was hoping to live vicariously through him and that his spirit would come back and enter in to all my players,” Auriemma joked. “Infuse them with the work ethic and tenacity and competitiveness that he had, but it didn’t play out that way.”
In the crowd: Class of 2021 signee Saylor Poffenbarger was in attendance, along with uncommitted prospect Caroline Ducharme. ESPN ranks Poffenbarger 17th and Ducharme 41st in the class.