Blogs > Elm City to Eagleville

A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

USF's Williams to challenge UConn's defense once again

When Courtney Williams blew up for 26 points in South Florida's loss to UConn on Jan. 10, I recall wondering out loud how many players can lay claim to four 20-point outings against the Huskies.

Naturally, with USF set to play UConn in the regular-season finale tomorrow, I decided it was a perfect time to find the answer to the question.

I have a media supplement that includes box scores dating back to the 1997-98 season so I was able to go back that far and add Chamique Holdsclaw's games from the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons since Tennessee site has links to box scores from every season.

Here is what I found:

Former Skylar Diggins and Angel McCoughtry, former stars at Notre Dame and Louisville are the only players with five 20-point games against the Huskies over the last 20 seasons. Williams joins a select group including Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw and Notre Dame's Kayla McBride and Natalie Novosel with four 20-point performances. Notre Dame legend Ruth Riley and Tennessee's Semeka Randall each other three such offensive explosions.

The list is somewhat limited simply because not a lot of teams play the Huskies enough to make a list like this. Certainly Notre Dame did during Diggins' days and Tennessee had plenty of games when players like Randall and Tamika Catchings were in school. Other programs like Boston College, Rutgers, Stanford and LSU had periods of time with plenty of showdowns with UConn.

With tomorrow's game and a chance for a rematch in the AAC tournament final next week, there's a chance that Williams could move into second place but I don't see any player ever catching Diggins for No. 1 on the list.

Here are the point totals I found against UConn
Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame 2009-13: 251 points in 15 games
Natalie Novosel, Notre Dame 2008-12: 161 points in 12 games
Kayla McBride, Notre Dame 2010-14: 153 points in 10 games
Angel McCoughtry, Louisvile 2005-09: 150 points in eight games
Ruth Riley, Notre Dame, 1997-2001: 128 points in nine games
Courtney Williams, South Florida 2012-present: 126 points in seven games
Chamique Holdsclaw, Tennesee 1995-99: 122 points in six games
Niele Ivey, Notre Dame 1996-01: 117 points in eight games
Cappie Pondexter, Rutgers 2002-06: 116 points in seven games
Kara Lawson, Tennessee 1999-03: 115 points in nine games
Semeka Randall, Tennessee 1997-2001: 111 points in seven games
Tasha Pointer, Rutgers 1997-01: 105 points in nine games

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home