UConn Today
As she has done for most of her time wearing a UConn uniform, senior Kelly Faris ’13 (CLAS) filled the statistics box during the women’s basketball team (25-2, 12-1 Big East) win over Seton Hall (9-18, 4-10) by a score of 90-30 on Saturday.
Faris prefers to have her team compile wins, ignoring her own point totals, but in scoring 18 points and getting 7 steals and 3 rebounds, providing 7 assists and blocking 1 shot, she also reached a milestone — scoring her 1,000th point as a Husky.
“I really had no idea,” she said. “After I hit the shot and when I came out they said I hit my 1000th point which was nice. But it’s not something I was really thinking about.”
That Faris reached the mark on Senior Day was important to her teammates, especially Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ’15 (CLAS), who also reached the 1,000 point mark while scoring 18 points in the game.
“Kelly is one of the most deserving people on this team. We wanted to make sure her senior night was as special as it could be, and it just so happened that she was this close to 1000,” Mosqueda-Lewis said. “I think everyone knows how much I look up to Kelly and how much I appreciate how much she has done for me the past two years.”
Stefanie Dolson ’14 (CLAS), who reached the 1,000-point career mark on Jan. 19 during a 87-62 win Syracuse, had 12 points and 9 rebounds for the Huskies.
With the win, head coach Geno Auriemma becomes only the second coach to win 400 games in a single conference. The first to reach the mark was Tara VanDerveer of Stanford, who won her 400th game in the Pac-12 earlier this month on Feb. 1. Both Auriemma and VanDerveer are among the all-time winningest coaches in women’s basketball and are among five with more than 800 wins still active as coaches today.
Caroline Doty ’13 (CLAS) and Heather Buck ’13 (NUR) were honored along with Faris and five team managers before the game. At halftime, senior members of the cheerleading, dance team and pep band were also recognized.
The Huskies play their final regular season home game on Tuesday against Pittsburgh at the XL Center at 7 p.m. (SNY, UConn IMG Sports Radio Network)
NOTES: Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was named to the Big East Honor Roll for her performance last week, when she averaged 22.0 points and 10.0 rpg while shooting 77 percent from the floor and 60 percent from 3-point range in a 1-1 week.
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The men’s basketball team (19-7, 9-5 Big East) will face another test on Wednesday as the Huskies go for their 20th win of the season when No. 7 Georgetown 21-4, 11-3), sitting atop the Big East Conference, arrives at Gampel Pavilion for a 7 p.m. game (ESPN2, UConn IMG Sports Radio Network).
The Huskies defeated DePaul by a score of 81-69 on Saturday for their 19th win of the year led by Shabazz Napier ’14 (CLAS), who scored 28 points. Ryan Boatright ’15 (CLAS) and Omar Calhoun ’16 (CLAS), each scored 17 points and Niels Giffey ’14 (CLAS) added 10 points. Cleveland Melvin led the Blue Demons (11-16, 2-12) with 20 points. The Huskies outrebounded DePaul 32-21, led by 7 boards from Napier, one of the few times the team has had a rebounding advantage.
Napier was named to the Big East Honor Roll this week for his performances in the wins against Cincinnati and DePaul in which he averaged 27.5 points and shot 55.6 percent from the field.
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Junior midfielder Lauren Kahn ’14 (CLAS) scored 6 points and senior midfielder Morgan O’Reilly ’13 (CLAS) had 4 points as the Huskies lacrosse team opened the 2013 season with a 12-2 victory over Iona in New Rochelle, N.Y. on Saturday.
UConn scored the first eight goals of the game dominating on offense, taking 32 shots compared to 14 by Iona.
The Huskies (1-0) will be back in action on Wednesday when they travel to Chestnut Hill, Mass. to take on No. 20/18 Boston College (2-1) at 4 p.m.
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The men’s ice hockey team took both games from Army over the weekend, winning 4-3 on Friday and then 6-3 on Saturday. The Huskies lifted their record to 16-13-3 overall and 13-10-2 in Atlantic Hockey play, while the Black Knights dropped to 7-17-5 and 7-12-5.
The Huskies now sit in third place in the AHA standings, three points behind second place Air Force. UConn has won three straight and has a 7-2-1 record over its last 10 games.
The team returns to action for its regular season home finale against Sacred Heart (2-26-3, 2-19-3 AHA) on Friday at 7 p.m. and completes the regular season against the Pioneers at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport on Sunday at 4 p.m.
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Women’s ice hockey concluded its regular season with a 4-2 loss to No. 4 Boston University on “Senior Day” at the Freitas Ice Forum, Sunday afternoon.
The Huskies (3-28-3, 1-19-1 Hockey East) face off against the Terriers (23-5-3, 18-2-1) next Saturday the Hockey East Quarterfinals best-of-three round in Boston.
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A rain delay and extra innings did not distract the baseball team as the Huskies completed a 2-1 weekend at the Wawa’s Weekend Classic in Orlando, Fla., with a 4-3 win over Texas Tech on Sunday.
The win was the second straight for the Huskies, who exploded for 10-straight runs on Saturday in a 13-8 win over Troy. The loss over the weekend was dealt by UCF, which defeated UConn 7-3 on Friday.
The Huskies improve to 3-3 on the season and returns to the diamond next weekend at the Stetson Tournament in DeLand, Fla., beginning on Friday against Ohio State at 1 p.m.
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The softball team completed its weekend at the FAU Strike-Out Cancer Tournament in Boca Raton, Fla., and moved to a 5-4 record on the season.
The Huskies were part of two pitching duels in the last two games of the tournament, dropping a 1-0 loss to Providence on Saturday and a 6-3 game against North Florida on Sunday.
Earlier in the weekend, the Huskies won three straight. They defeated Towson 6-2 and Florida Atlantic 3-2 on Friday and on Saturday morning scratched out a 1-0 victory over Northern Illinois.
The team returns to Florida next weekend for the UCF Spring Fling in Orlando.