Huskies Dominate St. John's for 84-43 Victory

Box score

JAMAICA, NY (Jan. 9, 2002) -- Four days after downing No. 2 Tennessee in Knoxville, the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team avoided a letdown, blitzing BIG EAST foe St. John’s with an 84-43 victory Wednesday night at Alumni Hall to improve to 17-0 overall, 3-0 in the BIG EAST.

The victory was UConn’s second of the season against the Red Storm, who fall to 3-12, 0-4 in the BIG EAST. The Huskies also beat St. John’s, 88-28, at Gampel Pavilion on Dec. 4.

The game opened with both teams trading baskets until Rasheedah Brown drilled a three-pointer to give St. John’s the early 5-4 advantage. Senior Sue Bird (Syosset, NY), who went to high school nearby at Christ the King, answered with a three-pointer for UConn, but Mary Pat Statler responded with another Red Storm three-pointer to make the score 8-7 in favor of St. John’s.

After the early offensive burst, the Red Storm went cold as the Huskies clamped down on defense. Forcing 15 first-half turnovers from St. John’s, UConn went on a 20-4 run to blow the game open at 27-12 with 10:07 remaining in the first half. The No. 1 team in the country never looked back, posting a 41-22 advantage at halftime.

Senior Swin Cash (McKeesport, PA) led the Huskies with 12 points and seven rebounds at the break.

The second half was all UConn as well, as the Huskies registered a 29-12 run to open up a 38-point lead at 72-34 at the 7:44 mark. From there, UConn would roll to its 17th victory, with walk-on Stacey Marron (Albuquerque, NM) nailing a three-pointer with 28 seconds remaining to give the Huskies their largest lead of the night at 41 points.

For UConn, hometown favorite Bird had 17 points, six assists and five rebounds while Cash narrowly missed her ninth double-double of the season with 15 points and nine rebounds. Senior Asjha Jones (Piscataway, NJ) matched Cash’s point production with 15 and redshirt freshman Jessica Moore (Palmer, AK), in her second career start, posted 11 points and six rebounds.

Redshirt freshman Ashley Battle (Pittsburgh, PA) also added 10 points for UConn.

Statler led the Red Storm as the only St. John’s player in double figures with 14 points. Nora Gyuris contributed nine points in the St. John’s effort.

The Red Storm shot only 30.4 percent from the field in the game.

After playing four of five games on the road, UConn returns home to the Hartford Civic Center for a 1 p.m. matchup with Miami on Saturday.