UConn Too Much
January 07, 2004 09:58 PM | General
January 7, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Diana Taurasi's 14 points led five double-figure Connecticut scorers on the way to an 82-57 victory over West Virginia Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
 |
||
| West Virginia's Latitia Williams attempts to score against Connecticut Wednesday night in a game the Huskies won 82-57. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
For the first seven minutes of the game it looked like the No. 4-rated Huskies were still feeling the effects of its loss to Duke last Saturday. UConn fell behind the undermanned Mountaineers, 10-6 and trailed 10-7 with 13:46 to go before putting on an 8-0 run to take a 15-10 lead.
Leading 21-14 with 6:46 to go, the Huskies scored 12 straight points to push their advantage to 19, 33-14. Barbara Turner and Taurasi keyed the run, combining to score 10 of the 12 points. Jessica Moore added the other two on a jumper to put UConn up by 13.
West Virginia stopped the run with a three by Sherell Sowho with 1:28 remaining, but Connecticut got a jumper by Ashley Battle and a three by Taurasi to end the half leading by 19, 39-20.
The Mountaineers trailed by 17 twice in the second half before Connecticut expanded its lead to as many as 37 with 8:17 remaining in the game.
Turner and Moore scored 12, Ashley Battle came off the bench to score 11 and Ann Strother contributed 10 to help Connecticut improve to 10-1 and extend its streak of consecutive regular season Big East victories to 44 games.
Yolanda Paige scored 14 points and handed out 7 assists for the Mountaineers, now 9-4, 1-1. Freshman Meg Bulger came off the bench to score 13 and Sowho contributed 11.
Kate Bulger, West Virginia’s leading scorer coming into the game, hit just 3 of 15 field goal attempts and finished the game with 8 points.
Connecticut held a 44-31 rebounding advantage and shot 54.2 percent from the field.
West Virginia made just 19 of 60 field goal attempts for 31.7 percent.
Connecticut has defeated West Virginia 13 straight times since the Mountaineers joined the Big East prior to the 1995-96 season.
The Mountaineers return to the court this Saturday, Jan. 10 at Seton Hall to take on the Pirates in a 2 pm Big East clash.
