Serah Williams finally had her moment in the UConn spotlight: 'All came together'

[BRS24]

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Williams flustered Izoje early. She never took her hands off her, yet played clean and didn't get called for a single foul in the first half. Williams used her physicality and size to get in between Izoje and the basket and Izoje and her teammates. The Orange scrambled to find second options outside of Izoje, who's listed as 6-3, but arguably may be a couple of inches taller. Izoje tried to find looks outside of the lane, but Williams glued herself to her hip and never let up.​

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Izoje missed four of her first six shots and finished the first half with more turnovers (5) than points (4) or rebounds (2).​

 

[cancontent]

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Williams flustered Izoje early. She never took her hands off her, yet played clean and didn't get called for a single foul in the first half. Williams used her physicality and size to get in between Izoje and the basket and Izoje and her teammates. The Orange scrambled to find second options outside of Izoje, who's listed as 6-3, but arguably may be a couple of inches taller. Izoje tried to find looks outside of the lane, but Williams glued herself to her hip and never let up.​

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Izoje missed four of her first six shots and finished the first half with more turnovers (5) than points (4) or rebounds (2).​

Thanks for sharing the article. Glad to see Serah having these moments that weren't possible while at Wisconsin.

 

[Bills Fan]

In spite of some critical comments I wrote a few days ago I was so glad to see the way Serah stepped up her game, as even acknowledged by Geno in his post game presser yesterday. She had an outstanding game against Syracuse and their excellent post player. THIS was the game I and many others expected to see after she signed on to be a Husky. Not only did she play great, but she exhibited effort not before seen this year, even hitting the floor and making a SS-like pass while she was there.

Now the key to going all the way is for Serah to play for 4 more games with the passion shown yesterday! I have faith she can, and will, deliver.

 

[Centerstream]

Izoje was being pushed as one of the ACC's best up and coming stars during the broadcast. Maybe rightfully so. But the thing that grabbed my attention was that at the start of the 4th quarter, she had scored 4 points against Serah, Sarah, Blanca and the other top UConn players. She scored 8 points when they were resting on the bench.
So, yeah, we should hope that Serah maintains the same kind of performance going forward. Along with the other "bigs" including Jana.
One other thing about Serah and the Syracuse game...on one occasion when she was subbed for, as she walked by Geno, he gave her a hand to hand slap. That's the first time that I can remember where Geno congratulated her during a game.

 

[BRS24]

Williams kept Izoje scoreless throughout the third quarter. While the Husky senior finished with six rebounds, four assists (her most since Feb. 7), and one steal in 20 minutes, it was her defense that stole the show.

Only once Geno Auriemma subbed out Williams with 15 minutes remaining and the Huskies up 70-21, did Izoje successfully get a shot to drop. In the fourth quarter, the freshman center went 4-of-4 from the floor, scoring eight of her 12 total points.

"The way she played defensively, the rebounding, just the presence that she had, I thought it was as engaged and as energetic and as assertive as I've seen her," said Auriemma. "The points don't reflect it, but everything else does."

 

[EricSD]

Excellent defensive effort from Williams. Many of us, rightfully so IMHO, have been critical of Williams offense - too often she gets wrong position pinned under the basket, or gets a pass and mistakenly puts the ball on the floor getting it stolen instead of going right up. These are basketball 101 skills for post players that you would think she learned at Wisconsin. Gives you an idea of just how bad the coaching was there. Sorry Marissa LOL.