Huskies roll over Vandy
UNCASVILLE — In a basketball sense, it was pure art.
Crystal Dangerfield deked her defender one way and went the opposite, creating enough separation so that she could sink a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer.
It was an emphatic end to an emphatic half, one that saw UConn outscore Vanderbilt by 23. Like so many of their other victories over the years, this one was over early — really, really early. The Huskies put on a clinic Saturday night in the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase, routing Vanderbilt 80-42 at Mohegan Sun Arena.
The Huskies’ performance was as thorough as it was swift. Four starters scored in double-figures, led by Dangerfield’s 19 points. Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson had 15 points apiece.
“We’ve got three players that we know are really, really good,” head coach Geno Auriemma said. “When those guys are good, we’re really good. I don’t know that you could play better than Pheesa and Crystal did today. … Lou’s going to do her part.”
UConn took all the suspense out of the building early, jumping out to an 18-3 lead that led to a timeout and a fit of frustration from the Commodores’ bench. And it only grew worse from there. The Huskies led by as many as 42 in the second half.
“This is the second game that we’ve played, and we were better today than we were last Sunday [against Ohio State],” Auriemma said.
Part of it was the opponent. Part of it was Collier, a player Auriemma believes is capable of recording a double-double every time she steps on the floor.
“It’s definitely something that Coach has been emphasizing the last couple weeks, is that we need people to go get the rebounds,” said Collier, who grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds. “Especially since I was guarding one of their bigger girls tonight, I tried to hit her first and then go get the rebounds. … We lost Gabby [Williams], who was a huge rebounder for us. We need people to step up.”
Williams, a defensive stalwart on four Final Four teams, was seated a few rows behind the UConn bench on Saturday. And the performance she witnessed — with the Huskies limiting Vanderbilt to a measly 25 percent from the floor — had to have seemed familiar. There was no let-up in the Huskies, who put their stamp on the game with help from Dangerfield and rolled to their 20th straight win in Uncasville.
“We really wanted to focus on our defense tonight, and turn our defense into offense,” said Dangerfield, who finished with seven assists and four rebounds.
Dangerfield — a Tennessee native who had Vanderbilt among her list of finalists when she was in high school — made several attention-grabbing plays. These were plays, Auriemma said, that reflected a more confident, assertive player.
“It’s like a quarterback,” he said. “They have to play a lot before they realize that they can call their own plays. I thought she made a couple calls today that were really right on the money — at the perfect time to get us the perfect shot.”
THE X-FACTOR: Olivia Nelson-Ododa’s night got off to an inauspicious start. The freshman forward was called upon late in the first quarter, but spent only 48 seconds on the floor after picking up two fouls.
Fortunately for the Huskies, Nelson-Ododa rebounded to have a relatively productive outing: five points and two rebounds in 16 minutes.
“We need Olivia to get really good,” Auriemma said. “The more minutes that she spends on the court, the more things that she gets herself involved in, the better we’re going to be down the road. She gives us a dimension that we don’t have. … She’s the only one that’s 6-5 and can do what she does.”
NO REASON TO WORRY: Samuelson said she’s dealing with some soreness in her right shoulder, though she insists it’s nothing to worry about.
“Just some soreness. … It’s not serious,” she said.