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Stewart, Hartley have stepped it up in Big East tourney
Regardless of what happens in tonight's Big East tournament final, this would have to be considered a successful week for UConn.
If the Huskies had a wish list for what they wanted to get done at their final Big East tournament, getting freshman forward Breanna Stewart and junior guard Bria Hartley rolling would have to be near the top of the list.
Stewart headed into the title game tied for fifth in scoring with an average of 17.5 points per game in wins over DePaul and Syracuse and is also fifth with a field-goal percentage of 68.2 while Hartley leads all players with an average of 6.5 assists per game.
"I think these last two games have really helped with my confidence going into the final," Stewart said. "I am trying to keep building on what has happened so far
We are all getting on the same page, creating a really nice rhythm and I think if we can carry that over to (today) it is going to help us out a lot."
If Stewart has 12 points tonight, she will finish with the fourth most points of any UConn freshman at the Big East tournament. Teammates Stefanie Dolson (60 points in 2011) and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (58 in 2012) top the list followed by Diana Taurasi with 53 points in 2001 and Svetlana Abrosimova, who scored 49 points during the 1998 tourney.
If the Huskies had a wish list for what they wanted to get done at their final Big East tournament, getting freshman forward Breanna Stewart and junior guard Bria Hartley rolling would have to be near the top of the list.
Stewart headed into the title game tied for fifth in scoring with an average of 17.5 points per game in wins over DePaul and Syracuse and is also fifth with a field-goal percentage of 68.2 while Hartley leads all players with an average of 6.5 assists per game.
"I think these last two games have really helped with my confidence going into the final," Stewart said. "I am trying to keep building on what has happened so far
We are all getting on the same page, creating a really nice rhythm and I think if we can carry that over to (today) it is going to help us out a lot."
If Stewart has 12 points tonight, she will finish with the fourth most points of any UConn freshman at the Big East tournament. Teammates Stefanie Dolson (60 points in 2011) and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (58 in 2012) top the list followed by Diana Taurasi with 53 points in 2001 and Svetlana Abrosimova, who scored 49 points during the 1998 tourney.
Labels: Breanna Stewart, Bria Hartley
posted by Jim Fuller at
5:17 PM
3 Comments:
If UConn loses tonight, how is that a successful week? UConn pays enormous amount of money to the head coach to win 3 titles. Big East, Big East Tournament, NCAA. UConn recruits to win those 3 titles. 3-5 other teams max recruit to UConn's level.
If UConn loses tonight, not only will they be 1-7 against Muffet, Diggins, and Notre Dame, they would be 0-4 against the top 2 teams, and 0-2 in their goals.
You know as well as anyone that Stewart, Hartley, Jefferson, Tuck, and Stokes have been down this road before. Good practices. Good games against teams that have absolutely no chance at defeating UConn.
I remember when Hartley had something like 5 steals against Oakland or some other stellar program. Everyone thought she was back. Then fans and coaches used the ankle excuse until the past 2 games. So if Hartley has a bad game tonight, it's not her ankle. It's the competition.
Same for Stewart, who has proven not to like playing against players stronger than her. Maybe tonight is the night Hartley and Stewart play like coaches, media, and fans expected them to all season.
Not a successful week after Faris panicked, drove with no place to land, threw a bad pass to KML, who panicked and threw an interception to Diggins instead of calling timeout. Don't blame the refs. They gifted 2 points to Tuck on an obvious charge. They took Ochonwa out of the game with phantom calls. Meanwhile bodies hit the deck on almost every play. By the way, 6'5" Dolson with the insanity training body a flopper like Laimbeer.
The refs gifted ND two baskets with less than 4 to go when they allowed the Irish to grab Uconn players and get rewarded with "tie up" calls. And as usual, they allowed Diggins to twice run straight into a player taking an inbound pass and call traveling. They did this Sunday in a crucial moment against UCF as well. If Diggins runs into you, it's a foul on you. If she runs in front of you, giving you no space to make a basketball play, it's a traveling on you. If she runs straight into a non-moving screen, it's a moving screen on you. If she chucks up one of her forced shots, you better be nowhere near her or she's going to the line.
But I grant you, the officials weren't as instrumental in ND beating UConn as they were in ND beating UCF.
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