Huskies Win Ugly Game vs Baylor

The UConn women ventured into Texas, the state that hosted two shocking upsets of the UConn men, to play #7 Baylor in a meeting of Top 10 teams. To say this game was not a showcase for women’s basketball is kind. The best thing that can be said about this game is that it was…competitive. Yeah, competitive is a nice, neutral term. If you’re not looking for neutral, how does horrible sound?

No one one on their game tonight – certainly not the Huskies, not Baylor, and not even the announcers who were so bad that I lowered the volume of the TV. Doris Burke did refrain from mentioning Breanna Stewart’s 7’1″ wingspan although she danced around it a few times, referring to Stewie’s long reach. Bet she was dying to say it, but managed to contain herself. Not so much with the rather embarrassing Odyssey Sims love-fest, though. Yo, Doris, there were 4 All-Americans in the game, 5 if you count Bria Hartley.

Anyway, UConn led for most of the game and even with the airballs and bricks that clunked off the front of the rim, managed to get up by 11 points in the first half. Baylor, meanwhile, was heaving up improbable shots from whatever open space they could find on the court. The aforementioned All-American looked to win the game single-handedly, taking shots that would probably have gotten her serious pine time if she were wearing a UConn jersey. But, she managed to get to the free throw line quite a bit in the first half, not at all in the second half. I wonder if the review of the Baylor flop when KML was called for swinging her elbows made the refs look twice whenever a Baylor player tumbled to the floor after that?

I was hoping the Huskies would find some composure, or energy, or whatever it was they left in Connecticut in the second half. But, no. Both teams seemed worn down (I wonder if colds or flus were at work here?) and things only got uglier. The teams traded baskets, Baylor managed a spurt when other players on the Baylor roster remembered they were allowed to shoot the ball and UConn heaved up nasty looking shots (KML – what happened??) that were only partially due to the Baylor defense.

Not everyone played poorly. Moriah Jefferson continues her upward trajectory and Kiah Stokes, I thought, was a good substitute for KML. If Kaleena couldn’t buy a basket, why not put Kiah in since she’ll at least grab rebounds and play some defense? Stokes appeared to get into Baylor’s heads a bit, too, after swatting a few shots and even stuffing an All-American. Bria Hartley also stopped turning over the ball and started hitting baskets, in fact, she saved the team’s bacon in the second half.

But this was an awful game, just awful. I hope Geno makes the team watch it every day before the Rutgers game as punishment.

by