This one stuck to the script, at least.
The UConn women’s basketball team rebounded nicely from Saturday’s stunning loss to St. John’s—the time the Huskies’ had dropped a game on their home court since losing the Big East Final to Rutgers in March 2007—with a ho-hum 86-37 win over Big East foe Pittsburgh before 2,095 fans at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
Freshman sensation Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis came off the bench to lead the Huskies in scoring with 23 points, while senior Tiffany Hayes added 13 and sophomore Bria Hartley chipped in with 10 points and five assists. Junior Kelly Faris added a game-high 10 rebounds and also had seven assists for the No. 4-ranked Huskies, who improved to 25-3 overall and 12-2 in Big East play.
For the game, the Huskies shot 61.4 percent from the floor, including 53.3 percent (8-for-15) from behind the three-point arc, while holding the Panthers to just 24 percent from the floor overall that included a dreadful 1-for-14 (7.1 percent) performance from downtown. Connecticut also dominated in the paint, outrebounding Pitt by a 38-24 margin and forcing 21 Panther turnovers.
Brianna Kiesel led the Panthers with 15 points while Ashlee Anderson added 10. With the loss, Pitt fell to 8-19 overall, and winless (0-14) in Big East play.
The Huskies sprinted out to a 29-4 lead fuelled by 10 straight points from Mosqueda-Lewis, and never looked back.
Such a convincing win would seem to put the St. John’s setback in the Huskies’ rearview mirror. But that’s not how Huskies’ head coach Geno Auriemma sees things. His job is to make sure his talented core of players doesn’t experience another hiccup along the way. So rather than bask in any glow, Auriemma pointed out potential potholes his young team must avoid of they are to reach their fullest potential.
“Sometimes you can get away with it, just on talent,” he said after the game. “I don't know that the players we have this year match the talent we’ve had in the past. Maybe in the past you could get away with it, but this team can’t. It’s a matter of playing to your ability every single minute of every day, or you’re going to get beat."
With the win, the Huskies avoided losing back-to-back games for the first time since the 1993 season when they suffered consecutive losses to Providence and Louisville. Since then, they are 48-0 in games immediately following a loss.
“We could have been like Notre Dame—come out here and run the score up and try to score 120 and shoot threes the whole game,” continued Auriemma, who never could resist taking a shot at his main competition. He was referring to Notre Dame's 120-44 drubbing of Pitt on Jan. 17. “That's not the point. The point is to work on your game and make sure you've got guys getting better and I think they are.”
The road continues on Saturday when the Huskies head to Wisconsin to take on 13-14 (4-10 Big East) Marquette at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee before wrapping up the regular season with the much-awaited visit from No. 3 Notre Dame (26-2, 13-1) on Monday night. Tip-off at the XL Center is slated for 9 p.m. (compliments of ESPN2).
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