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Saturday, Feb. 12 2:00pm ET
No. 1 UConn puts clamps on Rutgers | |||||
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BOX SCORE
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) -- In a game in which its offense sputtered and Rutgers (No. 11 ESPN/USA Today, No. 10 AP) set the tempo with its tenacious defense and patient offense, Connecticut showed that being No. 1 is all about finding a way to win. Swin Cash and Svetlana Abrosimova each scored four points during a late 8-0 run and Connecticut held Rutgers to 19 second-half points in rallying for a 49-45 victory Saturday.
"I said to the kids in the locker room, I'm not sure we did anything right today other than play good defense and win the game," Geno Auriemma said after Connecticut (22-1, 11-0 Big East) narrowly avoided its second loss in 10 days. There was a lot that went wrong for the Huskies against Rutgers (16-5, 8-3). Connecticut was held to season lows in points, field goals made (19), free throws made (7), free throw percentage (7-of-18, 39.8 percent) and assists (11). Its 49 field goal attempts tied a season low and the 38.8 percent shooting from the field was just better than the low of 37.9 against Kentucky early in the season. However, the Huskies, who trailed by 11 in the first half, got four big plays from center Kelly Schumacher down the stretch and held Rutgers to eight points in the final 9:05 to stage a second come-from-behind victory over the Scarlet Knights this season. "When it comes time to win, we usually know how to win," Auriemma said after Connecticut's lowest output since losing 50-44 to Villanova in 1993. This time, the Huskies' defense was even better than Rutgers, which hit 6-of-26 from the field in the second half. Abrosimova led Connecticut with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Cash finished with six points, and Schumacher, filling in for injured Paige Sauer at center, had five blocked shots and held Rutgers' Tammy Sutton-Brown to eight points. Shawnetta Stewart, who led Rutgers with 13 points, wasn't disappointed by yet another close loss to the Huskies. "We know we belong there in Philly in the Final Four," she said. "This is not going to stop us from wanting to be there. We know we can be there. This game is not begging us off anything." Auriemma said Rutgers would be a tough team in the NCAA tournament. "If you haven't seen them play and you are getting them in the tournament for the first time, you are not going to figure out what they are going to do," he said. "They are impossible to play against if you don't know them. We know them and they know us, and that's why the games are great games." There were three ties in the second half, the last when Scarlet Knights' point guard Tasha Pointer hit a 3-pointer, tying the score at 40 with 6:45 to go. Schumacher fed Cash for a layup on the Huskies' next possession for a 42-40 lead. After Karlita Washington was called for walking, Cash took a pass from Shea Ralph and scored again inside. A block by Schumacher and a steal by Ralph set up two free throws and a jumper by Abrosimova for a 48-40 lead with 3:53 to go. "Rutgers is a team that, they are up a couple of points, they feel they can beat us, but as soon as it's tied or they are kind of behind, it's already 'Uh-oh,' " Abrosimova said. "You can sense it. Swin made a couple of shots in a row and we were up by two or four points, we already knew, that's our time." Usha Gilmore banked in a 3-pointer from the corner and Stewart hit a baseline jumper, narrowing the lead to 48-45 with 2:27 to go. But Rutgers missed its final four shots and was called for its sixth shot-clock violation down the stretch. With Connecticut trailing 26-20 at the half, Ralph scored four points in an 8-3 run that narrowed the margin to a point and set up a tight second half that kept the sellout crowd of 8,579 screaming. Rutgers, which held Connecticut to a season-low 29 points in the first half of their last meeting, did even better this time, limiting the Huskies to 20 points on 8-of-26 shooting. The Scarlet Knights built a 21-10 lead with 5:10 to go by holding the Huskies without a basket for 9:19. Connecticut used a 10-2 run to close within 23-20 with eight seconds left in the half on a layup by Asjha Jones. Pointer's 3-pointer just before the buzzer extended the lead to six points. | ALSO SEE Womens College Basketball Scoreboard
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