Bird Ties Career High as Huskies Roll Over Holy Cross, 97-54

Box score

HARTFORD, CT (Dec. 6, 2001) -- Senior Sue Bird (Syosset, NY) tied a career-high with 25 points as the No. 1 University of Connecticut women’s basketball team rolled over Holy Cross, 97-54, Thursday night at the Hartford Civic Center. Seniors Asjha Jones (Piscataway, NJ) and Swin Cash (McKeesport, PA) added 15 and 13 points, respectively, for the Huskies, who improve to 9-0 this season.

Bird keyed a 9-0 UConn run to start the game, making a jumper to post the game’s first points at the 19:44 mark. Maggie Fontana finally put Holy Cross on the board with a three-pointer at the 16:47 mark, but Bird responded with another jumper eight seconds later to push the lead to eight points. Holy Cross would cut the lead to six points twice within the next two minutes before UConn blew the game open with a 14-2 run to make the score 27-9 with 8:02 left in the half.

The halftime advantage for UConn was 40-18, as Bird and Jones paced the Huskies with 13 points apiece.

UConn shot only 42.5 percent from the field in the first half, but the Huskies came out firing in the second half, registering a 53.8 field goal percentage and connecting on 9 of 14 three-point attempts. For the game, UConn recorded 12 three-pointers, tying a season-high.

Leading the way for UConn in the three-point category was Bird. The 5’9 guard was 5-for-7 from beyond the arc in the contest. In total, Bird went 9-for-14 from the field en route to a new career high for field goals made in a game.

Senior Tamika Williams (Dayton, OH) led UConn in the rebounding category with nine boards and Cash added eight. Bird had five assists.

Katie O’Keefe led the Crusaders with 13 points while Jeanette Paukert and Amanda Abraham chipped in nine points apiece.

Holy Cross is now 5-3 this season.

The Huskies return to action when they face No. 8 Louisiana Tech Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. The match will be the third of the season for UConn at the Hartford Civic Center.