The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Huskies streak goes on
Players, coaches not satisfied after sluggish start in 95th straight win
HARTFORD » One by one the three top scorers in the UConn women’s basketball team’s NCAA record 95th consecutive victory walked into the interview area inside the XL Center. However, there was not even the slightest sense that there was any celebrating to be done in the eyes of Gabby Williams, Kia Nurse and Katie Lou Samuelson.
The top-ranked Huskies rolled to a 9142 win over Houston before a season-high crowd of 12,316 on Saturday afternoon. With five players including four starters scoring in double figures it seemed like business as usual as the Huskies opened a season at 20-0 for the 10th time in the last 23 season.
The reality, however, is something much different.
The Huskies aren’t typically measured against their competition as much as they are judged for what they are capable of accomplishing. So watching the Huskies go 6 for 20 from the field in the first quarter and seeing star players misfire on shots that are normally an automatic two points put UConn coach Geno Auriemma in such a sour state of mind that he didn’t even want to walk into the locker room at halftime to address the team.
“I wasn’t going to go in there and finally there are five minutes left and what am I going to say to them? Sometimes there is nothing you can say at halftime and sometimes you have a lot to say. It wasn’t one of those days, I didn’t have anything to say so I didn’t go in there until it is too late.” The message was received. After the Huskies missed their first two
shots after halftime, UConn promptly made its next five and eight of the next 10 shots en route to yet another blowout victory.
“We can’t allow ourselves to start like that in the first place,” said Williams, who matched her career high with 19 points to go with 10 rebounds and five assists. “Once again we got things in transition, but we have to come out from the go.
“We already know what he is going to say, which isn’t good if we know that we are playing that poorly than something has to change that much sooner before he catches it. We did expect it and we had to take what he said to heart. He was definitely right about everything he was saying. He said we can’t rely on our talent to beat other teams. You can’t take days off and there were a lot of people at the game today and they didn’t see us do anything that special, we take that to heart.”
Nurse finished with 16 points, eight assists and four steals, Samuelson had 16 points and Napheesa Collier had 12 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and five steals for UConn (20-0, 8-0 in the American Athletic Conference). Natalie Butler had 10 points and eight rebounds helping the Huskies have 20 bench points for the fourth time this season.
When Samuelson hit a 3-pointer with 7:37 left in the third quarter, it was the 150th of her career. Samuelson did it in her 57th career game matching the mark for fewest games needed to reach with milestone with fellow Mater Dei (Calif.) High School alum Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. The 3-pointer also enabled Samuelson and Napheesa Collier to have to most combined points for any UConn teammates through the first 20 games of the season. The previous mark was 788 points set by Maya Moore and Tiffany Hayes during the 2010-11 season. Samuelson also matched Wendy Davis for the most 3-pointers (72) through 20 games in program history. One of most impressive numbers might be that all three of the daughters of Jon and Karen Samuelson not only played or play for nationally-ranked Division I programs but also all have at least 150 career 3-pointers. Bonnie Samuelson had 237 treys in her four seasons at Stanford while Stanford senior Karlie Samuelson is at 203 3-pointers and counting.
UConn missed three of its first nine shots with Samuelson and Collier combining to miss four shots in the lane. At one point, the Huskies were 3 of 12 from the field.
When Houston freshman Jasmyne Harris hit one of her four first-half baskets, the Cougars had the early 6-4 lead. It was the first time since a Dec. 11 game at Kansas State that the Huskies had trailed. The streak of not trailing was snapped at 439 minutes, 32 seconds and featured games played in seven different states.
Freshman guard Crystal Dangerfield missed her fifth straight game due to a stress reaction in her left foot. Dangerfield took part in warm-ups without restriction, the most on-court work she has done since the decision was made to shut her down for two weeks after a Jan. 10 win over South Florida.
Dangerfield is set to play on Wednesday at Temple although Auriemma said her minutes will be limited.
Jasmyne Harris had 14 points while Jacqueline Blake had 13 points and seven rebounds for Houston (8-13, 1-7).