Shortly after I entered the court to catch the end of today's practice, I could hear UConn junior guard Bria Hartley coughing just a little bit so obviously she is still dealing with a bit of illness. However, Hartley said she is feeling much better and UConn coach Geno Auriemma said she looked good at today's practice.

"There is nothing yo can do about it (being sick)," Hartley said. "You just have to go out and push yourself as hard as I can. I definitely feel a lot better today than I did the last couple of days."

Hartley was expecting to go back into the game even after she was told Moriah Jefferson was starting the second half but Geno Auriemma opted not to put her back in.


"At practice on Friday she was really bad physically, she was just bad," Auriemma said. "She was all stuffed up, coughing and hacking and it was bad. We went out to dinner Friday night and it was no better, it was really bad. At shootaround Saturday it wasn't any better. I told her you are either going to try to play through this or you are not playing. She gave it a little bit of a go and I could tell by her body language that it wasn't worth it. She was really good today."


INTERESTED SPECTATORS
Gampel Pavilion was nearly empty when we came in except for UConn AD Warde Manuel, Nike rep Lauren Westendorf and some other noticeable onlookers in the form of highly-rated high school juniors Sierra Calhoun out of Christ the King and Kathryn Westbeld out of Fairmont High in Kettering, Ohio.

Also, Ossining (N.Y.) coach Dan Ricci said UConn signee Saniya Chong, talented eighth grader Andra Espinoza-Hunter will be in attendance at tomorrow's game.

Westbeld, a 6-foot-2 forward who is averaging 14.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.6 blocks per game while shooting 71.8 percent from the field will also take in the Baylor game. Her Fairmont team has only lost one game this year and it happened to be the one Auriemma went to see her play.

Fairmont is the top seed in the OHSAA Division I tournament's Harrison 3 bracket and will play the winner of tomorrow's Vandalia Butler/Piqua game on Thursday.

Also, there is a chance Calhoun could be back for the game but we'll have to see if that is the case tomorrow night.