UConn faces dangerous USF in regular-season finale
Storrs — Perhaps the biggest issue for veteran members of the topranked UConn women's basketball team the last time out was simply controlling their emotions after the Senior Day and Huskies of Honor ceremonies.
A completely different challenge awaits with high- scoring guard Courtney Williams leading No. 21 South Florida into Gampel Pavilion today (7 p.m., ESPN2) for the regular-season finale.
Williams has scored at least 20 points a total of four times against
the Huskies, including a 26- point explosion in the first meeting of the season. Over the last 20 seasons only former Notre Dame star Skylar Diggins and Louisville legend Angel McCoughtry have topped that mark with five 20-point outings each.
Williams is the sixth player with at least four 20-point performances against UConn's vaunted defense and the other five happened to be taken in the first round of the WNBA Draft, including former No. 1 overall picks Mc- Coughtry and Chamique Holdsclaw.
"One of her big things is she is just quicker than everybody," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "She just goes wherever she wants to go with the ball and makes it really difficult for you to guard her. She elevates on her shot so she jumps right over Moriah ( Jefferson) sometimes, and if you put somebody bigger on her, she is just too quick for them.
"You are really challenged to find who is able to do the best job on her. Sometimes when we switch and we have Stewie (Breanna Stewart) on her, that works great, or if we switch and we have Gabby Williams out there, that works really well, but she just goes wherever she wants to go with the ball."
Williams has the ability to score from the perimeter, but is also fast enough to get to the rim. She is as explosive of a leaper as anybody UConn has played in recent memory.
"You have to chalk it up a lot of times that we did everything right and the kid still made the shot," Auriemma said. "It is like throwing the perfect pitch exactly where you want to throw it, right where the coach said 'this is where we want the ball' and the guy hits it out of the park.
Sometimes you have to give credit to the other guy."
Jefferson will likely open the game on Williams as two of the nation's quickest players get to go head to head once again. Jefferson loves the challenge of guarding the best perimeter player, whether it is South Carolina's Tiffany Mitchell or a player like Williams.
"She is one of those players you just have to try to contain," Jefferson said. "She is going to get her shots, a lot of shots in the game. You have to be prepared for her to do that. She has the green light and you never know when she is going to shoot it. You have to always be engaged with her and be ready (for her) to put it up."
UConn has already clinched the AAC regular-season title for the third season in a row, while USF has locked up the No. 2 seed.
Both teams will receive byes into the quarterfi- nals with UConn opening tournament play on Saturday at 2 p.m. and USF playing at 6 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena.
A win would also mark the eighth time UConn has finished regular-season play without a loss and 12th time that the Huskies won a regular-season conference title without dropping a game. A victory would also enable the Huskies to become the first women's Division I program with two conference winning streaks of at least 60 games.