Spring Break
'Elite' Women Cruise Into Final Eight
Women's Basketball
Brittany Perotti
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Sports
|
Though the Huskies defeated the Monarchs by 43 points earlier this season, both teams were quick to mention that those were different times.
At that point, Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene were still playing and Maya Moore was coming off the bench. As Old Dominion's T.J. Jordan said before the game, "It's the past and we're in the present right now."
But in some ways, it was déjà vu for the Monarchs, who once again were knocked out of a tournament by the Huskies this year.
"This is like playing the perfect storm," said ODU head coach Wendy Larry. "[UConn is] so deep, their transition game is just so good. You have to play the perfect basketball game to compete with them, to beat them. Unfortunately, we played with a great deal of passion, but didn't play with the energy that we needed to play consistently."
The first half on Sunday was a back-and-forth struggle, the teams trading baskets. The defense for the Huskies was not as sharp as it had been in the first two games and the Monarchs stayed within 10 points for most of the first 20 minutes, though they never had the lead in the game.
Renee Montgomery attributed the slow start to the team's anxious play on offense.
"We're impatient sometimes because we want to get the game going fast and that's where we get in trouble," she said.
For a second, head coach Geno Auriemma looked uncomfortable with what he was seeing.
Then, one of the team's youngest players and one of its most experienced players stepped up - Moore and Brittany Hunter, respectively - and gave the Huskies some breathing room.
Be the first to comment on this story