HARTFORD, Conn. (March 5, 2006) – Senior Barbara Turner (Cleveland, Ohio) scored 19 points and sophomore Ketia Swanier (Columbus, Ga.) added a career-high 11 off the bench as the No. 2 seeded University of Connecticut women’s basketball team defeated No. 10 seed Notre Dame, 71-60, in the quarterfinals of the 2006 BIG EAST Tournament on Sunday afternoon in the Hartford Civic Center.

Senior Ann Strother (Castle Rock, Colo.) was the third Husky to score in double-figures for the game, adding 10 in the victory. It was the 22nd game this season in which she has scored 10 or more and the 85th time throughout her four seasons in a UConn uniform. In addition to her 19 points, a BIG EAST Tournament career-high total for the senior, Turner pulled down five rebounds in the game. It was the 11th time in the last 12 games that she has put forth a double-digit scoring effort and the 18th on the season. Swanier also dished out three assists and grabbed four boards in the win for the Huskies.

With the win, UConn improves to 27-4 overall while Notre Dame closes out its regular season with a 18-10 overall mark.

After picking up the first basket of the game, the Huskies spotted the Fighting Irish the next six points to fall behind early. However, UConn tied the score at 11-11 at the 14:46 point and did not look back. All of UConn’s first 11 points of the game were scored by members of the Class of 2006, with Strother putting up three, Turner two and classmate Willnett Crockett (Harbor City, Calif.) scoring six points in that span.

Despite a few mini-runs by UConn, Notre Dame held on and trailed by just seven with 6:40 to play in the half. An 11-0 Connecticut run, keyed by four points each from Swanier and Turner, over 4:20 to put the Fighting Irish away. UConn led 40-24 at the break. It was much of the same in the second half for UConn, with Notre Dame coming no closer than 13 points for the remainder of play.

For the game, the Huskies were 29-for-50 from the floor for a 62.5% shooting percentage. They out-rebounded the Fighting Irish, 36-23, for the game. Freshman Renee Montgomery (St. Albans, W. Va.) dished out seven assists in the win for the Huskies, who had assists on 20 of their 29 baskets.

Senior Megan Duffy paced the Fighting Irish with 20 points while Courtney LaVere added 15.

Connecticut will face the winner of tonight’s game between DePaul and Pittsburgh in the semifinals on Monday. It is the 18th consecutive year in which UConn has advanced to the BIG EAST semifinals.

Game Notes 

ü       Connecticut improves to 46-11 in the BIG EAST Tournament.

ü       UConn is now 7-0 versus Notre Dame in the BIG EAST Tournament.

ü       The Huskies have now won 15 of their last 17 games.

ü       UConn is 18-4 in BIG EAST quarterfinal match-ups.

ü       All 18 of those wins have been in a row.

ü       UConn is now 64-9 all time at the Hartford Civic Center. They are 10-1 at the building this season.

ü       UConn improves to 24-3 all time in BIG EAST Tournament games played in Connecticut.

ü       Tonight’s game marks the 699^th coached by Geno Auriemma.

ü       The Huskies have now extended their streak without back-to-back losses to 459 consecutive games following tonight’s win.

ü       Connecticut’s 2006 senior class improve to 120-17 all time and 37-5 at the Hartford Civic Center over the last four seasons.

ü       The first 11 points of the game for UConn were all scored by seniors.

ü       Barbara Turner moved past Asjha Jones for 13^th on the UConn career scoring list.

ü       Barbara Turner also scored her 1,500^th point tonight.

ü       Barbara Turner scored her BIG EAST Tournament high 19 points.

ü       Barbara Turner’s 19 points marked the 11^th time in the last 12 games that she has registered double-figure points and 18^th time all season.

ü       Ann Strother has become UConn’s all-time minutes played leader at 15:30 in the first half as she passed former minute’s leader Diana Taurasi.

ü       Ann Strother is tied with Nykesha Sales and Kara Wolters for 6^th place in games played with 137.

ü       Ann Strother’s 10 points marked the 22^nd time this season and 85^th time in her career that she has registered double figure points.

ü       Ann Strother and Barbara Turner have now joined Swin Cash and Tamika Williams as the only two recruiting classes with two 1,500 point scorers each.

ü       Ann Strother is going in to tomorrow’s BIG EAST Semifinal needing one 3-pointer to tie Wendy Davis for 2^nd place on Connecticut’s all-time career 3-point list with 278.

ü       Willnett Crockett tied her BIG EAST Tournament high with 8 points in the win.

ü       Mel Thomas started her first game since Syracuse.

Post Game Quotes

No. 2 University of Connecticut 

Head Coach Geno Auriemma

On the Game:

“I thought going into the game that we were probably playing a different Notre Dame team that we did when we played at their place. They were coming off of two or three losses and I knew we would have to play better than we did when we faced them then. It ended up being what we hoped would happen. It really served us well for the next game because you had to play and make plays and I thought our post players came up really big today. I’ve been harping on that for a little while. I think Willnett Crockett set the tone and Barbara Turner did on the inside. If you would have asked me before the game how I wanted it to go, with the exception of the last five minutes, it went exactly the way I was hoping it would go. I’m really proud of our guys, especially after the week that they just had.” 

Given what happened at Rutgers what did you have to do for with the team to get them ready for the tournament?

“I think if we would have played Wednesday or Thursday we would not have been as good as today. I think we needed some time. Tuesday was just a regular day, Thursday was a day off. So really the only days we did anything was Friday and Saturday. Both of the days were more of just getting our heads rather than our bodies ready. We had a talk last night with the team and a lot of really good things came out.” 

Describe your defensive plan for Megan Duffy:

“She’s the scholar-athlete of the year in the league, she should get forty points if she played the way she did in the last ten minutes. She’s just one of those unselfish kids who want to get the other people on her team the ball. She helped us in the first half because I don’t think she was being as aggressive. We made it very difficult for her to get to where she wanted to go. She showed in the last ten minutes just how hard she is to defend. The fact that we ran different people at her had a lot to do with it.”

On Ketia Swanier:

“I think, given what happened Monday, I was really hard on Ketia, and in some ways unjustly so. I even tinkered with starting her and Renee just because I want her to know that I have a lot of confidence in her and I want her on the floor. HSe does things for us that a lot of players couldn’t do. She controlled the temo of the game when she was out there playing. She had a lot of really good plays. They were the kind that get your energy going. If Ketia makes those jump shots she’s going to be very difficult to play against. If she can make a couple of perimeter shots every night she can be a huge threat and an asset to us.” 

Players: Barbara Turner, Ann Strother, and Willnett Crockett 

How anxious were you to get back on the court after the loss to Rutgers last week? (Willnett Crockett)

“I think pretty anxious; we were in practice the whole week. We were just harping on what we had to do after loosing to a team like Rutgers. We were all pretty much focused on getting here and getting the job done.”

What was different between the first half when you were scoring a lot and the second half when you didn’t score at all? (Willnett Crockett)

“I just wanted to come out and set the tone. I was trying to get other people open and I just didn’t get open. I look to rebound and get them open. If I had the shot I would take it, but have a first half like that and you have a half where you help your team mates out.”

Do you have a switch that you flip on when it’s tournament time? (Barbara Turner)

“Not at all. I’m a senior now and I have the right idea of the type of mindset you have to have. I just try to get out there every night and take it game by game.”

No. 10 Notre Dame

Head Coach Muffet McGraw 

On the game:

“I was really proud of our seniors. They really fought hard, and I think this is really a tough environment for our players to come in here and experience that kind of crowd and play well. In the last few games that we’ve won we’ve had four people in double figures, a lot of people playing well, and tonight we didn’t have that. I thought Barbara Turner played extremely well, and she really hurt us when we tried to keep Ann Strother from getting touches. Turner really stepped up and made big shots.” 

Why did you use Courtney LaVere with two fouls in the first half?

“We weren’t getting enough offense without her. We felt like she was scoring, and then we weren’t getting any production out of the other post. She’s smart enough to play with two fouls. She’s done it a couple times, just not very often. I thought she did a really good job tonight, despite the call that was made, I really felt like she was in a good position. Then she had to come out with three fouls in the second half. I felt like the first 10 minutes of the second half we were a little tentative because of the fouls.” 

How did Connecticut’s hot shooting affect your morale?

“Well, I think you saw how it affected us; we fought hard. I don’t think we ever put our heads down and quit. We kept fighting. We got down 20 and brought it down to 11, and it really should have been a little bit closer. I was really proud of how they fought. Connecticut is a great team, and they were just on. When you get a lot of lay-ups, it gives you a lot of confidence.” 

Does this game serve as a precursor to the postseason?

“I just hope that the underclassmen realize that they need to go down swinging. They have to bring their best effort, they have to bring their best game, and they can’t rely on the seniors to do it all for them, because next year this is their team. So they have to step up now.” 

Courtney LaVere 

On being in foul trouble:

“I really wanted to go out and play as aggressive as I could, and that got me in trouble. On a couple of them I was trying to hustle back and get a block, and I’ve been trying to do that lately. It just got me in trouble tonight. When I went in I just tried to play as smart as I could without picking up more fouls.” 

Why do you play so well against Connecticut?

“I really enjoy playing Connecticut, we have a great rivalry. I try to bring my best effort because I know it’s going to be a fight the whole time. I feel like as long as I can play as hard as I can, we have a chance to pull out the win.”

Megan Duffy 

On halftime adjustments: 

“I got a few shots in the first half, but I just wasn’t able to knock them down. I tried to be a little bit more aggressive in the second half. But really, I need to learn to put two halves together, especially at this point in the season. I have to be able to carry the load offensively in the first half as well as the second half."