University of Washington
Connecticut
Top-Ranked UConn Tops UW in Caribbean Classic
December 18, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 18, 2008
CANCUN, Mexico - Washington women's basketball opened the 2008 Caribbean Classic facing top-ranked Connecticut, Thursday, a battle that was won by the Huskies from Storrs, 109-51, at the Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico.
Connecticut (8-0) had four players finish in double-figure scoring led by 29 from center Tina Charles who was 13-of-15 from the field and grabbed eight rebounds in 19 minutes on the floor. Forward Maya Moore, who had a double-double at halftime, added 23 points and 14 rebounds. Reserves Tahirah Williams (13 points) and Tiffany Hayes (10) rounded out the top scorers.
Washington (3-4) was led by a season-high 11 points from junior guard Sara Mosiman, while junior center Laura McLellan added her fifth double-double of the season with 10 points. Mosiman was a spark off the bench for the Huskies despite getting in foul trouble early on.
Connecticut dominated UW inside, ending up with a 56-30 rebounding advantage and outscoring UW 64-22 in the paint. UConn held UW to a season-low 26.3 field goal shooting percentage (20-for-76) and in turn shot 64.2 percent (43-for-67).
Unfortunately for the Huskies from Seattle, the 109 points scored by Connecticut broke a school record for most allowed by a UW team. The previous record was 106 points given up to Stanford on Feb. 23, 1997. The 58-point losing margin was also a record for Washington, as its previous school-record losing margin was 52 points in a 103-51 loss to Louisiana Tech on Dec. 19, 1982.
"We wanted to come into this competing in two different areas - defense and rebounding," UW head coach Tia Jackson said. "We fell short having a rebounding margin of 26 so there is an area we need to improve upon. I thought there were some areas we were really looking to attack and that were really good for us, but we've got to do that more consistently. We wanted to push the ball and we weren't pushing the ball as much as we would have hoped."
Connecticut took control of the game early with an 18-3 run, but Washington fought its way back, coming alive with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to eight (18-10) at 14:42. Senior guard Michelle Augustavo hit a three-pointer and then Mosiman hit back-to-back baskets off back-to-back UConn turnovers. Mosiman grabbed a steal at midcourt and drove to the basket for the layin and after UW forced another UConn turnover, Mosiman scored again on the other end of the floor off a nice pass from junior forward Lydia Young.
In fact, after that UConn run to open the game, Washington outscored their top-ranked opponent 11-8 during a three-minute span. The Huskies trailed by 10 (18-10) at 12:10 in the first-half, only to have UConn build as much as a 35-point advantage (55-20) at 1:56 until the intermission thanks to a 21-0 run over four minutes.
After opening the second-half by trading baskets, UConn jumped out with a 9-0 run and then turned in an 18-2 run after which they never looked back. Connecticut led by as many as 62 points with 2:30 left in the contest.
Washington won't have much time to dwell on the loss, as the Huskies will turn around and face Florida State in the second round of the tournament on Friday at 6:30 p.m. The Seminoles (9-2) defeated Northern Colorado (4-5) in the first game of the tournament, 75-32.
"We don't have time to get down, we have to turn around and bounce back right away," Jackson said. "We can wallow in this if we want. But one of the things we can go ahead and stomach is Connecticut is the No. 1-ranked team in the country. They're very good. So we just wanted to make sure we could take some bits and pieces here that we can learn from and apply it to the next game."
