When Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis got a little too aggressive in the pursuit of an offensive rebound and was whistled for a her second foul with 11:32 left in the first half, the general consensus was that the Huskies' leading scorer would spend the rest of the half sitting on the bench.

However, the UConn coaches never flinched and they kept her on the court. Nearly two minutes passes before she was reluctantly pulled from the game with 9:37 left in the opening half.  Perhaps she would have stayed on the sidelines had senior Kelly Faris not been whistled for her second foul just 62 seconds after Mosqueda-Lewis came out of the game.

Following a television timeout the Huskies hierarchy rolled the dice and reinserted Mosqueda-Lewis back in the game. Although she came perilously close to picking up her second foul while blocking a pair of shots, Mosqueda-Lewis would only be called for one more foul for the rest of the game.


"He (Auriemma) told me to be careful, other coaches told me to make sure you are playing smart and I told them that I would," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "I guess since he did keep me in, he trusted me right then. Luckily I didn't get into too much foul trouble and tried to play smart."

Not only did Mosqueda-Lewis play smart, she played extremely well. Mosqueda-Lewis had 26 points (one shy of her career high) to go with 15 rebounds, two assists and three blocked.

Still, she was in no mood to celebrate in the game. She was on the verge of tears when meeting with the media about an hour after the game ended. She was especially disappointed that she attempted one shot in one stretch of 12:43 and that came when she grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled with 1.6 seconds remaining in the first half.

Mosqueda-Lewis is tiring of losing tight games to the nation's elite programs. In the two seasons she has been at UConn the Huskies are 1-6 against Baylor and Notre Dame with another game with the Fighting Irish just a couple of weeks away.

"Coach (Auriemma) has been telling us for the longest time that you can't change for a day and think that is going to fix everything," Mosqueda-Lewis said. You can't change in a week and think that is going to fix what is going to happen in a month. You have to make sure it is a conscious effort every single day and listen to those who try to help you and until we make that conscious effort every single day nothing is going to 

change."