U.S. overwhelms Canada
BRIDGEPORT, CONN. >> Just after the United States routed Canada by 40 points, Geno Auriemma and his UConn greats posed for a group photo on the court.
The five UConn players, who helped the Huskies win 10 of their 11 national championships, received one last rousing ovation from the crowd. A fitting send off for the team from their adoring Connecticut fans.
Auriemma gave those same fans an opportunity to cheer on their former UConn greats early on, starting the five of them. It was virtual the same starting lineup he used in a win over France on Wednesday. The only change was putting Breanna Stewart into the group instead of Elena Delle Donne.
The Hall of Fame coach said it was the right thing to do.
“I hadn’t had the same starting five in any games we played,” he said after the 83-43 victory Friday night. “I thought to myself, I asked Cheryl (Reeve), if you were head coach instead of me, you’d do it, because it’s the right thing to do. She said OK. I’m not going to worry about it and did it. It was fun for the kids and the fans.”
The players really didn’t notice it until the opening tip.
“When you look at it, you have a good piece of history out there with Sue (Bird) and Diana (Taurasi) representing the early success and then Stewie on the other end,” said Maya Moore, who helped the Huskies win two titles. “It was really cool and really cool for the fans.”
That UConn five set tone early defensively.
After struggling in their first two exhibition games in the first half, the Americans jumped all over their neighbors to the north.
The U.S. only had a threepoint lead on the select team in their pre-Olympic tour opener Monday and led France by one Wednesday at the half. The Americans wouldn’t let that happen against Canada.
Taurasi, Bird, Moore, the Stewart and Tina Charles struggled a little offensively when they were in, but defensively they shut down Canada.
The Canadians missed 13 of their first 14 shots and couldn’t recover from the slow start, trailing by 13 after one quarter and 24 at the half.
“I thought defensively we were about as good as we can be given the short amount of work that we’ve done,” Auriemma said. “That kind of led to a bunch of other things.”