WBB: DePaul Drama Departs Huskies Try To Start New Winning Streak
STORRS-After DePaul took them to the brink in Chicago in late January, the University of Connecticut Huskies’ women’s basketball program wasn’t taking any chances when the Blue Demons paid a visit to Gampel Pavilion on Friday night.
Dorka Juhasz and Christyn Williams respectively led the way with 22 and 20 points each, while Aaliyah Edwards earned another season-best with 19 tallies of her own. Their efforts and more relieved the rematch of most of the drama, as the Huskies rolled to an 84-60 victory over the Blue Demons. No. 8 Connecticut (16-5, 10-1 Big East) previously required a buzzer-beater to escape from Chicago with an 80-78 triumph just over two weeks prior.
The Huskies were without January’s heroine, Caroline Ducharme, for the third straight game while Olivia Nelson-Ododa missed her second in a row. Those that did suit up for the Huskies paid tribute to their sidelined teammates with a dominant interior effort.
Such endeavors were led by Juhasz, who was back in the starting lineup after coming off the bench on Tuesday. The Ohio State graduate transfer’s 22 tallies were the best of her UConn career to date and she complimented her performance with eight rebounds. UConn was able to penetrate Gambel’s blue interior to earn 62 of their 84 points.
DePaul (19-7, 11-4 Big East), one of the first runner-ups in the Big East, kept pace in the early going thanks to the growing freshman legend of Aneesah Morrow, who earned her 17th consecutive double-double by the time the first half wrapped. The rookie phenom and the Blue Demons were mostly held in check in the second quarter, thanks mostly to seven turnovers forced by UConn, their deficit sat at only six after a Deja Chruch layup made it 32-26.
But the forced turnovers came up big as the opening half closed, as the Blue Demons earned only a single three-pointer in the final minute. Juhasz and Westbrook were fully responsible for the decalogue that wound up giving Connecticut a permanent double-digit lead. DePaul never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way, allowing the Huskies to coast to the end. Williams was primarily responsible for the preservation effort, scoring 16 of her 20 points over the latter two frames.
Such a victory allowed them to restart their dominance over the Big East after Wednesday’s shocking defeat at the hands of Villanova. Though their 169-game streak over conference competition is over, the Huskies haven’t lost consecutive games since March 1993.
On the losing side, Morrow completed her latest statistical masterpiece with 20 points and 16 rebounds. DePaul is currently one of the at-large bids in Charlie Creme’s latest projected
bracket for ESPN, released on Friday, where the Huskies earned a No. 3 seed. UConn owns a 4-0 mark against the Blue Demons since returning to the Big East last season.
Connecticut is back on the road on Sunday afternoon, as they’ll travel to Milwaukee to take on Marquette in a nationally televised matinee (2:30 p.m. ET, Fox). The Golden Eagles (17-6, 6-4 Big East) are one of Creme’s last four at-large teams admitted in his projections and can sympathize with the Huskies after dropping a 74-63 overtime decision to Villanova on Friday night. Sunday will be the first meeting between UConn and Marquette since the Huskies took a 73-39 decision in the Big East Tournament’s championship game in Uncasville last March.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
