The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Collier and Stevens lead University of Connecticut
Auriemma gives bench plenty of time
STORRS — No players on the current UConn women’s basketball team were alive the last time the Huskies lost a game to a team with a losing record. There was little chance of that happening on Thursday night at Gampel Pavilion.
Napheesa Collier shook off a pair of tough shooting performances to score a game-high 19 points while Azurá Stevens had a gamehigh 22 as UConn topped Tulsa 78-60.
It was the Huskies 190th straight win over an opposing team with a losing record.
The lack of playing time for bench players other than Stevens, especially against the elite competition, has been a popular topic of conversation since Monday’s Texas game. With that in mind, UConn coach Geno Auriemma sat his starting five for the first 5:11 of the second quarter.
Freshmen Mikayla Coombs and Megan Walker and sophomore Molly Bent played the entire second quarter. Freshman Lexi Gordon played six minutes as did Stevens, while sophomore Kyla Irwin was in there for four minutes. The only starter to see time in the quarter was Collier, who came in for Stevens with 4:49 left in the first half.
By quarter’s end, Tulsa and UConn each had 16 points in the quarter with Stevens and Collier combining for 12 of the Huskies’ points. Walker was 4 for 4 from the foul line, but Bent, Coombs, Gordon, Irwin and Walker were a combined 0 for 9 from the field with two turnovers.
UConn’s starters helped the Huskies take the 26-11
lead at the end of the first quarter
Kia Nurse added 17 for UConn (17-0, 6-0 in the American Athletic Conference). Katie Lou Samuelson, dealing with a black eye suffered in the Texas game, and Crystal Dangerfield each played just 15 minutes.
It was UConn’s 46th win a row at Gampel Pavilion and 72nd straight home win. UConn improved to 88-0 in the American Athletic Conference.
Bent was able to make a strong cut to the basket in the third quarter resulting in a three-point play for the first basket of the game not scored by Stevens or one of UConn’s starters.
Tulsa had two stretches when it missed seven consecutive shots as it fell to 0-8 against the Huskies.
However, the Golden Hurricane made 11 3-pointers including five from Dickson. As a team that had lost by an average of 49 points in the first seven meetings of the series, Tulsa had the ball down by just 10 at the final media timeout before Stevens hit backto-back baskets.
Tulsa (8-11, 2-4), which never led in the previous five matchups with the Huskies, took an early lead on a Shug Dickson 3-pointer and led for 2:06 before a 3-pointer from Crystal Dangerfield gave the Huskies the lead for good. In seven previous matchups against UConn, the Golden Hurricane led for a total of 1:41.
Dickson had 18 points and Erika Wakefield 13 for Tulsa.