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The #3 UConn Huskies women’s basketball team beat the UCF Knights on Sunday. The final score was 93-57. That tells you pretty much all you need to know.
In case you needed visual proof of the result:
UConn, man. That team is a machine. It’s something to behold.
We’re going to do the Good News/Bad News thing here.
The Bad News
Well, if you were hoping UCF could put a dent UConn’s armor a bit, today was not the day.
Four UConn players finished in double-figures, led by Napheesa Collier with 23 on 7/12 and Megan Walker with 21 on 9/15, plus 11 rebounds. Katie Lou Samuelson was not all that great (4/13, 15 points), and still.
Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.
If you’re going to beat UConn, you cannot beat yourself. UCF turned it over 19 times (UConn had 14 turnovers), and that led to a 27-6 fast break advantage for the Huskies. Give them an inch and they take your house, your car and the dog.
The Good News
Alright, a few things here.
This was the expected result. UConn is UConn. They’re supposed to do this to everyone. So we didn’t learn anything new.
UCF actually played pretty well on defense, especially in the second half. The Knights held UConn to an 0/11 streak at one point in the third. The Huskies were just 10/31 in the second half. For the game, the Huskies were 51.6% from the field, but that included a 22/31 clip in the first half.
Kayla Thigpen is showing us something. With UConn keying on Kay Kay Wright (who looked alright after that injury scare last time out but was still just 4/15 for 8 points), someone had to step up and Thig did just that, coming off the bench and showing off her textbook shooting stroke with 14 on 6/14 from the field. Ny Shuler added 13 more on 5/7 (including three longballs!) and Sianni Martin also came off the pine in place of Sydnee McDonald and dropped another 13 on 4/11.
So take take good, toss out the bad, and pretend it was a non-conference game.
Next up: Houston.
Best news is Kay Kay look healthy from ankle. Now you can't let UConn beat you twice when you host Houston Wed. https://t.co/UePX92Bn3E
— Eric Lopez (@EricLopezELO) January 27, 2019