Huskies Rout USF, 79-39

Crystal Dangerfield (5) gets greeted by her Husky teammates during
UConn's rout over USF in the American Athletic Conference tournament
semifinals. Dangerfield had 13 points and six rebounds.
(Photo by Dustin Satliff/AAC)

By Bob Phillips

UNCASVILLE—It should surprise no one that the University of Connecticut Huskies won their semifinal match-up in their bon voyage to the American Athletic Conference tournament. After all, UConn has never lost a game—regular season or championship tournament—since joining the conference. Nor should it surprise anyone that the top-seeded Huskies won convincingly. Connecticut had beaten USF, the tournament’s No. 4 seed, by an average margin of 30.5 points, including an 80-39 rout at Gampel Pavilion just last week. Yesterday, the Huskies matched that margin, running roughshod over the Bulls by a score of 79-38 at the Mohegan Sun Arena, which has been the tournament’s home for the past several seasons.

Megan Walker led the way for the Huskies. The 6-1 junior forward from Chesterfield, Va., led all scorers with 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Connecticut, with two steals. Christyn Williams popped in 15 points and grabbed four boards, while Crystal Dangerfield added 13 points and six rebounds, and Aubrey Griffin contributed 10 points and four boards for the Huskies.

The Husky defense, meanwhile, did not allow a single USF player to reach double digits in scoring. Elena Tsineke led the way for South Florida with nine points, Sydni Harvey added seven points for the Bulls.

UConn led straight out of the gate, opening up an early 9-3 lead at the game’s first media time-out, holding the Bulls to 1-for-9 from the field and forcing six USF turnovers.

The Huskies’ lead reached double figures for the first time when Olivia Nelson-Ododa’s offensive rebound and put-back upped the Connecticut advantage to 11 points (14-3). After Dangerfield converted a steal into a layup, the score was 16-3 Connecticut, and the Huskies were off to the races. Literally. By the end of the first half, UConn had built a 38-17 advantage, and USF’s chances were about the same as any of the thousands of Husky fans in attendance hitting the lottery.

The second half became a rendition of the lyric “Second verse, same as the first!” made popular by Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits in the classic song Henry the Eighth. The Huskies opened the third quarter with a 13-0 run, and led by 34 points at the third turn (56-22).

With the Huskies’ foot off the pedal (it would be nearly impossible to go all-out for 40 minutes in a rout of these proportions), USF went on a  7-0 run early in the fourth period, but the Huskies quickly routed the ship and cruised to an easy victory.

The Huskies now move on the AAC championship game on Monday night when they will face Cincinnati, the No. 3 seed. The Bearcats topped the No. 2 seed, UCF, 57-51 in the other semifinal on Sunday. And for anyone expecting anything resembling a close game, consider this: In the two games played between UConn and Cincinnati this year, the Huskies won both games with a 38.5 average margin of victory. In their last meeting two weeks ago, UConn walloped Cincinnati  by 47 points, 105-58, on the Bearcats home court.at the Mohegan Sun Arena is at 7 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN2. For full coverage of this week’s American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Championship, visit theamerican.org/wbb and follow @American_WBB on Twitter.

—with staff reports

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