UConn dominates early in 72-53 win over Irish
By MATT LOZAR
Sports Editor
The opportunity to make history was there.
With 12 minutes, 41 seconds left in the first half, Connecticut star player Diana Taurasi picked up her third foul, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma was being restrained by his assistant coaches and the Joyce Center crowd was in a frenzy with the Irish ahead 13-12.
Then the Huskies showed why they have won a NCAA Division I womens record 56 consecutive games.
Taking advantage of her first career start, freshman Barbara Turner scored a career-high 25 points and led No. 2 Connecticut to a 72-53 win over Notre Dame Monday.
"I thought that Connecticut really responded when Taurasi got her third foul in the first half," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "I felt that all of their players really collectively stepped up, in particular I thought Barb Turner really did an outstanding job. I thought they played with poise."
Getting Taurasi in early foul trouble worked right into Notre Dame's game plan.
"That was part of what we were trying to do — get their people in foul trouble and get them out of the game," Notre Dame guard Le'Tania Severe said. "I feel like their other players stepped up and we didn't adjust well enough when we got down early."
Seeing their team leader leave the game early forced the Huskies to sharpen their game not only physically, but also mentally.
"We knew we had to concentrate a lot more. When Diana is on the floor, she is our floor general and she runs everything," Turner said. "We knew that we had to run our offense to execution and keep them off the boards defensively and I think we did that for the most part."
As Taurasi watched from the bench, the Huskies took control of the game outscoring the Irish 30-10 over the 11 minutes Connecticut's All-American was off the court. During the run, Connecticut guard Megan Conlon, who missed her previous 16 3-point attempts, hit three straight treys to extend Connecticut's lead from 33-23 to 42-23 and essentially put Notre Dame away.
"The threes Maria made were the difference in the game right there," Auriemma said. "Those three in a row — that was it."
While the Huskies got their shooters open to make 7-of-12 from behind the arc in the first half, the Irish couldn't get sharpshooter Alicia Ratay any clean looks at the basket as Conlon blanketed the senior.
"We ran a couple of screens to get Ratay open but [Conlon] was very tenacious and physical with Alicia," McGraw said.
Ratay took only three shots, made her only 3-pointer with 7:19 left in the game. She finished with nine points.
As Ratay couldn't get open on the outside, the Huskies also dominated the post game. Notre Dame forward Jacqueline Batteast scored a team-high 16 points, but shot only 5-21 from the field. The Irish were out rebounded 40-28 by the Huskies. Every entry pass to the blocks, especially to Batteast, saw the Huskies double-team and force the Irish post players into taking bad shots.
Connecticut came out cold in the second half not scoring for the first three and a half minutes. But the Irish couldn't take advantage as they scored only two free throws over that span.
The Huskies extended their lead to as much as 27 points in the second half. Taurasi finished with four points, a team-high eight rebounds and six assists in 25 minutes on the court.
Freshman Courtney LaVere scored 12 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots for the Irish.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, January 21, 2003
