With South Florida's win over Cincinnati in the second round on Saturday, the reunion of former Winter Haven (Fla.) High teammates has been set.

Brittany Denson, who was a senior on the 2004-05 Winter Haven team which won the Florida 4A championship, had six points, four rebounds, four assists and four blocks in the 68-58 victory. When Denson was a senior, UConn's Tiffany Hayes was a freshman at Winter Haven who played a huge role in Winter Haven's championship run. I spoke the Denson after the press conference about her relationship with Hayes and she had some pretty nice things to say about her former high school teammate.

"She is a great player, she runs the floor," Denson said. "She is a great person all around and it was great to play with her. We have had a lot of fun together. I just talked to her every day since I have been here. She has come to see me. It is different, we are definitely going to battle it tomorrow.

"She could shoot those deep 3's. She really opened my eyes up in the first state game (playoff) game. She was shooting them from everywhere. She really brought us up and got us the state championship. She is already good but she is going to get better as time goes on, she is going to great soon."

Although Denson came up big with six points, 12 rebounds and three blocks, South Florida lost 83-37 in the only meeting between the teams. Denson believes that humbling loss aided the Bulls who have a 9-6 record since that loss and with 22 wins has put itself in position to receive a bid into the NCAA tournament regardless of Sunday's outcome.


"It opened our eyes, it really showed us that they don't care they will start beating us down to the ground," Denson said. "It is like a respect thing, we have to come out and play hard. Whatever happens happens, we don't have anything to lose."

After an upset-filled first day, things returned to normal on Saturday with No. 5 seed Notre Dame, No. 7 Rutgers and No. 8 South Florida all winning (No. 6 DePaul is currently playing West Virginia).

There was no word on the severity of an apparent knee injury suffered by Notre Dame freshman Erica Solomon. I guess it is a wait and see but judging by the movements Solomon was performing under the direction of the Notre Dame trainer, it did not appear to be an ACL. Then again, with no medical background, I am the last person to determine whether it was an ACL tear or not.

It was a mixed bag of results for the three players who have committed to UConn.

Kelly Faris, the only senior to sign with UConn, had 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists as Indianapolis' Heritage Christian defeated Oak Hill 60-58 in overtime to win the Indiana 2A title for the fourth straight year.

The two juniors who have orally committed to UConn were not as fortunate as their seasons came to an end on Saturday despite dynamic efforts from both of them.

Stefanie Dolson had 36 points but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 1.1 seconds remaining as Minisink Valley of Slate Hill, N.Y. lost to Kingston 45-44 in the New York Section 9 Class AA final Saturday.

Samarie Walker had 30 points and 14 rebounds but it wasn't enough to prevent her Chaminade Julienne of Dayton, Ohio team from losing to Mason 52-49 in the Ohio Division I Harrison 4 District tournament.