In recent years, the only real question mark surrounding Connecticut has been at the end of, “So, how many did they win by?”
And against Georgetown, that number was usually an unseemly 50 or 60 points, but not this year. No. 2 Connecticut (23-1, 10-1 Big East) delivered another win, Head Coach Geno Auriemma’s 644th at home, in Storrs Wednesday night, dropping Georgetown (13-10, 3-7) 80-48 in a game that was over right after it started.
“We knew it would be a tough game, but we have to go in and compete and play our game,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “The first half, we played defense not great, and we didn’t score like we needed to.”
The Huskies’ “all-everything” freshman forward Maya Moore scored 25 points in 32 minutes and was 4-of-6 from behind the arc. Georgetown was outrebounded 48-31 by Connecticut – a team whose late-March run is so regular it may as well come up in the Farmer’s Almanac.
oore’s 8-of-10 shooting in the first half, including dialing 4-of-4 from long distance, helped Connecticut stake out a 31-6 lead 12 minutes into the first half. Senior center Aminata Diop and sophomore forward Jaleesa Butler kept Georgetown’s offense from totally stagnating, chipping in nine combined points as the Hoyas trailed 48-17 heading into the locker room.
“In the second half, we scored like we needed to, we forced them into more turnovers,” Williams-Flournoy said. “We competed in the second half, and we needed to compete in the first half so the score doesn’t look as bad as it did.”
Huskies sophomore center Tina Charles controlled the paint for most of the contest, pulling down six first-half rebounds and making three trips to the foul line in the half where she was 7-of-9 on the day.
Connecticut’s bench had little say in the outcome – Huskies starters scored all but 16 of the 80 points – as Auriemma’s first five flexed their muscles over the Big East again. But while UConn had an easy time of it at home over Georgetown, the top of the league and the bottom of the league are not as far apart as they used to be.
Connecticut and Rutgers are no longer the only programs with a shot at winning the conference.
No. 4 Rutgers (19-4, 9-1) fell hard in Morgantown at No. 11 West Virginia two weeks ago, while the Mountaineers (20-3, 9-1), just three years removed from making the finals of the league tournament, sit second in the Big East standings. West Virginia has two WNBA prospects, seniors center Olayinka Sanni and all-purpose forward Chakia Cole, and demolished No. 18 Pittsburgh Wednesday night at home but barely squeaked by the 11-12 Providence Friars in Rhode Island.
“It depends on who comes to play, who’s got their game going and a lot of times, where it is,” Williams-Flournoy said. “Syracuse (19-4, 7-3) just had a tough game at Seton Hall (13-10, 3-8). Teams in the Big East on the women’s side have played very well at home.”
This is the same Connecticut team that Pittsburgh Head Coach Agnes Berenato said could win by nearly 100 points in most of its Big East games were it not for Auriemma calling off the dogs in the second half. But Rutgers’ 73-71 win over Connecticut early in the season, the Scarlet Knights’ fourth triumph over the Huskies since the 2005-2006 season, shows that just because Connecticut used to steamroll league opponents does not mean it can or will with the same frequency anymore.
A 32-point win is nothing for the Huskies to scoff at, and a 32-point loss is not the end of the world for Georgetown, given the spots of competitive basketball seen in the second half and the Hoyas’ top of the league incoming class of freshmen on tap.
Though the Huskies lost to the Unites States’ national team by just 16 in early November, the days of 70-point conference wins in Storrs are no longer.
ost of that national team was comprised of former Huskies anyway.
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