No. 2 UConn women face improved Tulane tonight on the road
UConn's second-ranked women's basketball team is back on the road tonight to face Tulane, one of the American Athletic Conference's early surprises.
Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. (SNY) in New Orleans.
Tulane (13-3, 3-0) and the Huskies (14-1, 3-0) are two of the four unbeaten teams remaining in conference play. The other two, Central Florida (14-2, 3-0) and Tulsa (9-7, 3-0), also play Wednesday night in Orlando.
UConn is coming off a 63-46 win over South Florida on Sunday in Storrs in a game where the Huskies were so sluggish early, coach Geno Auriemma benched all five starters midway through the first quarter for nearly seven minutes.
UConn eventually came to life in the second half to post a comfortable victory, but Auriemma knows his team can't afford another poor start against the Green Wave, who bring a sixgame winning streak into the contest and are led by point guard Krystal Freeman, who is averaging 13.2 points and 6.9 assists per game.
Tulane, however, has never beaten the Huskies in 10 tries, including a pair of lopsided losses last season, 91-47 in the regular season and 82-56 in the Big East tournament.
Senior Katie Lou Samuelson, who became the 10th player in program history to reach 2,000 career points in the win over USF, continues to lead the Huskies in scoring (19.6) followed by fellow senior Napheesa Collier (17.7), who leads the team in rebounding with 10.1 per game.
Although frustrated by the playr of his starters, particularly freshman Christyl Williams, who did not score and took only two shots in 21 minutes, Auriemma was pleased with the play of seldom-used junior guard Molly Bent, who made the most of her 20 minutes by sinking her only two shots — both 3-pointers — while adding three assists.
“Today it was good for me,” Bent said after Sunday's game. “We weren't expecting it, so there wasn't as much time to think ... I don't think I really had a thought. It was a dead ball (when Auriemma subbed). We had to run over and go in.”
— Day Staff Reports