Spring Break
Moore, Moore, Moore
Sophomore's defensive play puts spark back in Huskies
Mike Northup
Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: Sports
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Sparked by a tremendous defensive play from forward Maya Moore, which led to a fast-break Tina Charles layup, however, the Huskies woke up from their first-half stupor and set the up-tempo tone for the rest of the game. they used that spark to blow out Team SRP 103-37.
With just under 16 minutes left in the second half, Moore blocked an outside shot from Team SRP's Shamika Jackson. Not content with just blocking the ball, Moore sprinted out toward the ball heading out of bounds and dove into the Team SRP bench as she threw the ball back inbounds to teammate Kalana Greene
Greene quickly passed the ball up the court to Charles, who had sprinted the whole way down and finished off the play with a strong layup. The crowd cheered louder than they had all night and UConn finally began to fire on all cylinders.
"I was worried about getting the ball at first, but I knew I was going to run into them regardless. I don't remember feeling hurt," Moore said. "They were pretty good at catching me, so I thank their coaching staff for that even though it ended up costing their team two points.
The fast-break basket started off by Moore's hustle began a stretch where UConn completely shut down any and all offensive efforts from Team SRP, while continuing to pack the points on at the other end of the floor.
"I think Maya kind of got the ball rolling for us as far as that is concerned in the second half because I thought she was really, really active and really a major factor defensively in the second half," Auriemma said.
Both Auriemma and many of the players agreed that the emergence of that energy and intensity was the biggest difference between the two halves, allowing the Huskies to get back into the up-tempo rhythm they prefer to play with.
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