It did not matter to women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma that the No. 2 Huskies had only two players hitting shots from the field until deep into the second half against No. 3 Stanford at the XL Center Monday night.
Until center Stefanie Dolson ’14 (CLAS) hit a jump shot with 14:33 remaining in a bruising physical battle that had seven lead changes, only freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ’15 (CLAS) and sophomore Bria Hartley ’14 (CLAS) had scored from the field for UConn.
“We played hard for 40 minutes,” Auriemma said. “It was one of the better defensive efforts we’ve had in a long time. I was pleasantly surprised. That was something I was hoping I would see.”
It was, as Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer described it, “kind of a November heavyweight fight. It was extremely physical. It’s what you usually see in March.”
If the result, a 68-58 win for UConn, is the same in late March, Auriemma will have more answers to the questions he still may have about his team in late November.
Auriemma has wondered how the Huskies would perform without a dominant All-American who could rescue his team, now that Maya Moore has graduated. Moore, who was in the crowd last night, saw that shots were not falling for her former teammates Tiffany Hayes ’12 (CLAS), Kelly Faris ’13 (ED), or anyone else besides Mosqueda-Lewis and Hartley.
“We won at a lot of things we wanted to win. Offensively, a rebounding edge,” Auriemma said. “A lot of the things we’ve been stressing, we accomplished. To be able to win the game is a huge accomplishment for this group. There was a lot of uncertainty on their part. For a lot of these guys, it was the first time they played without a dominant player they could rely on to bail them out. It was a real good night, a real good win.”
In her first nationally-televised game against a top-ranked team, Mosqueda-Lewis demonstrated she had more game than just her reputation as a shooter. She did lead all scorers with 25 points, but also added 8 rebounds and 2 steals, while Hartley had 19 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. With her shots not falling, Hayes was urged to make other contributions, and she responded with 9 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals.
“We know [Mosqueda-Lewis] is an excellent shooter. We knew we couldn’t leave her open,” said VanDerveer. “She came out, and credit not just her. People screen for her; they know she can knock down shots. The aggressiveness was right from the get-go. Connecticut was clearly more aggressive in my mind. If you want to play at this level you’ve got to be both very physical and very aggressive.”
“We have to have that aggressive mentality,” Hartley said. “You want to score every time. They’re a very physical team, with Chiney and Neka. We had to push back and get a body on someone. I think we won that battle tonight. I think we passed this test.”
The Huskies’ aggressiveness on defense held most of Stanford’s offensive threats in check. Senior forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike had 22 points, just one off her average, but her sister, sophomore forward Chiney, was held to 7 points. Only one other Cardinal was in double figures, freshman guard Jasmine Camp with 14 points.
“[The defense] caused us to take a long time to get the ball up,” Nnemkadi Ogwumike said. “It was disruptive because they continued it. We worked on it in practice and did a good of job of handling it at times, but not enough.”
With the win, the Huskies improve to 3-0 on the season and play host to the World Vision Classic at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion this weekend, starting with a game against Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
