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Final Score: UConn Women's Basketball Crushes UCF at home, 106-51

No Morgan Tuck? No problem.

By Daniel Connolly
Ian Bethune

Despite playing without their main low post presence in Morgan Tuck, the UConn Huskies didn't skip a beat on their way to obliterating the UCF Knights, 106-51, to advance to 17-0.

Sadly, there was no trophy presentation after this UCF blowout.

Gabby Williams took full advantage of her chance to start and dominated in the paint. She began the season in the starting lineup but had since moved into a bench role. However, Williams came back in a furious way tonight, scoring 19 points on 9-of-11 shooting to go along with seven rebounds, including four offensive.

The Huskies had their way with UCF down low, scoring 40 points in the paint and out-rebounding the Knights 23-14 in the first half.

Katie Lou Samuelson continued her ascension, as she tied her career-high assist total of six in the first half, finishing with a team-leading seven. After getting off to a cold start to her freshman year, Samuelson has really turned it on recently, scoring in double-figures in four of the last six games as well as increasing her assists.

Like many contests involving this UConn team, this game was never close. After UCF scored the opening bucket of the game, the Huskies took full control. They ended the first quarter on a 17-0 run- by the end of the first half the Knights only had 17 points.

Perhaps because of the recent string of injuries, and the fact the game was very much in hand, all the starters sat for the entire fourth quarter. During that time, both Napheesa Collier and Natalie Butler shined late in the game for the Huskies.

Butler has not played much outside of garbage time, as she is still relatively unknown to the coaching staff. However, she finally got the splint off her surgically repaired hand and was a force underneath the basket, playing her best game as a Husky. The transfer from Georgetown scored 20 points in 19 minutes of action. Collier put up 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Despite injuring her knee earlier this week in practice, Moriah Jefferson was not limited, and she didn't seem to be bothered by the injury.

Next, the Huskies will travel to Dallas for a visit with SMU on Saturday. The Mustangs (8-9) lost to Tulane in a game which tipped off at the same time as this one.


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