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The UConn women's basketball team is rolling through their schedule in typical UConn fashion. Regardless of conference affiliation or national ranking, the Huskies are dominating the competition. As women's basketball fans have been accustomed to hearing for the past decade, the road to the National Championship goes through Storrs, Connecticut.
So far this season the Huskies are 22-0, winning games by 35.9 points on average. Defensively, they are holding opponents to 31.7% shooting and 48.5 points per game. Perhaps most impressively, they have done all that with a limited bench. Playing at times with seven scholarship players, Geno Auriemma's crew has found ways to just win.
Injuries have plagued this team since the second game of the season against Stanford. Early on, Morgan Tuck and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis missed time due to various injuries. Although Mosqueda-Lewis is back, Tuck is not and will be applying for a medical redshirt. It has been reported that Tuck will miss the remainder of the season after having a successful surgical procedure on her right knee this past Thursday at the UConn Health Center.
UConn is coming off an impressive 93-56 conference road win at Temple on Tuesday night. The game was back and forth offensively for most of the first half before Breanna Stewart displayed one of the best shooting performances in recent memory. The sophomore led four UConn players in double figures with a career-high 37 points on 15 of 19 shooting in 30 minutes of action.
Mosqueda-Lewis had 18 points, Bria Hartley had 16, and Stefanie Dolson finished with 11. Moriah Jefferson had a career-high 12 assists. The Huskies shot 58% from the field during the game.
The Huskies are 9-0 in the American Athletic Conference and face Cincinnati (9-11, 2-7) this afternoon at 2pm for the second time this season.
The two teams last met in the conference opener in late December- a 67-34 UConn victory. The game was a lot closer than the score. Cincinnati held their own in the first half in Gampel Pavilion only being down 13 points, but the Huskies clamped down defensively holding the Bearcats to 14 points in the second half and 24.5% shooting for the game.
Jamelle Elliott's team comes into the match-up in a tail spin after a great early season start. Cincinnati beat Ohio State and Xavier earlier this season, but has lost seven of their last nine games. In addition, they will be playing without their leading scorer in Dayeesha Hollins. Hollins is out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
The Bearcats are coming off a road loss at SMU (66-47) this past Tuesday night.
Following Saturday's road trip to Ohio, UConn returns to the Storrs Campus against new conference foe SMU (13-7, 4-6) on Tuesday at 7pm. This will be the first meeting between the schools and SMU's first trip to the state of Connecticut. The Mustangs, facing a top-ranked team for the very first time, are led by AAC scoring leader Keena Mays. Mays is averaging 19.6 points per game.
It should be a fun match-up between the top two AAC leader scorers in Mays and Stewart as the Huskies prepare for their first national championship rematch with No. 5 Louisville next weekend.
