{"id":56776,"date":"2012-03-20T09:36:30","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T13:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=56776"},"modified":"2012-03-23T16:00:28","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T20:00:28","slug":"huskies-reach-19th-consecutive-sweet-16-with-72-26-win-over-kansas-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/03\/huskies-reach-19th-consecutive-sweet-16-with-72-26-win-over-kansas-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Huskies Reach 19th Consecutive Sweet 16 With 72-26 Win Over Kansas State"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Freshman<\/a>
Freshman Kiah Stokes '15 (CLAS) had 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks in the Huskies tournament win. ( Bob Stowell\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Sunday, Kansas State head coach Deb Patterson spoke eloquently and admiringly of the Huskies\u2019 nation-leading defense, describing it as \u201csort of like their post players \u2026 understated.\u201d Patterson also noted how freshman center Kiah Stokes \u201915 (CLAS) was just beginning to understand what head coach Geno Auriemma expects from her as a player and that \u201cthe sky\u2019s the limit for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn., Patterson and her Wildcats got a first-hand look at that defense \u2013 being held to 17.5 percent shooting and an NCAA tournament record low 26 points \u2013 and how Stokes is starting to respond to her coach\u2019s prodding: she finished the game with 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots, while helping the Huskies to a 72-26 win.<\/p>\n

The victory advances the Huskies to their 19th consecutive Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 25 in Kingston, R.I., against\u00a0 Penn State, beginning at 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2, WTIC, WHUS)<\/p>\n

\u201c[Our defense was] as good as I\u2019ve seen from us all year long,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cThere really were very few open looks that we gave up. Our pressure was as good as it\u2019s been all year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Huskies jumped out to a 19-3 lead in the opening half, holding the Wildcats to a single<\/p>\n

\"Bria<\/a>
Bria Hartley '14 (CLAS) begins a fast break against Kansas State during the NCAA Tournament game at Webster Bank Arena on Monday night. ( Bob Stowell\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3-point shot over nearly the first 11 minutes of the game before KSU scored its second basket with just over 8 minutes remaining. Sophomore Bria Hartley, who led all scorers with 16 points, scored her 10th point for UConn with 5:27 remaining in the half, pushing the lead to 29-5 before the half ended with the Huskies leading 38-10.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extremely beyond disappointing to have taken the floor and competed so ineptly tonight,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cCredit Connecticut for their aggressive and confident play on both ends of the floor. We were obviously dominated in every phase of the floor. We didn\u2019t look like the basketball the team we were this year. Tonight we didn\u2019t get the job done in any phase of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added junior Brittany Chambers, who led the Wildcats with 11 points: \u201cThey have five players committed to the defensive effort at all times. You do not find a lot of holes. We had some open shots early in the game, but we did not convert. When you play against a defense like that, they make you do things you do not want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Senior<\/a>
Senior Tiffany Hayes '12 (CLAS), left, greets freshman Kiah Stokes '15 (CLAS) after she left the NCAA Tournament game she helped the Huskies to win over Kansas State. ( Bob Stowell\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Huskies were also in sync offensively. In addition to Hartley and Stokes hitting double figures, Tiffany Hayes \u201912 (CLAS) had 11 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis \u201915 (CLAS) had 15 points. Kelly Faris \u201913 (ED) had another solid box score line with 5 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.<\/p>\n

Asked about the play of Stokes, Auriemma reiterated his pre-tournament comment that the Huskies future likely will be determined by the freshman\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a different team when she is able to play as she did today,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are signs she\u2019s growing up a bit; starting to understand what we\u2019ve been harping about all the time. Maybe it\u2019s a natural progression, that at some point you have to get it. I think the real sign for Kiah is what happens next Sunday. If she comes back Sunday and does this again, we\u2019re heading in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questioned about the difference between seeing the Huskies\u2019 defense on television compared with an up-close look, Patterson said, \u201cI would not have anticipated we would be as poor in our execution, mindset, and our toughness physically, having watched Connecticut on film. It was unmanageable for us tonight. I just think they\u2019ve got a versatility to them that makes them very dynamic on a night like tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following his team\u2019s Big East Tournament championship, Auriemma had said he felt his young team\u2019s victory was one that they \u201creally own,\u201d since they had learned to win as a team, without relying upon last year\u2019s All-American, Maya Moore \u201911 (CLAS), to rescue them.<\/p>\n

\"Junior<\/a>
Junior Kelly Faris '13 (ED), right, battles for the ball against Mariah White of Kansas State with help from sophomore Bria Hartley '14 (CLAS) in the NCAA Tournament at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn., Monday night. The Huskies won the game by a score of 72-26. ( Bob Stowell\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Asked if the team feels the same way, Hartley said, \u201cI think we all know our role on this team and we know what we\u2019re supposed to do. The main thing for us when we\u2019re doing really well on the court is when we\u2019re communicating. I think Kelly does a great job for us being a leader and being vocal and talking to us and reminding us of what to do on the court. When we\u2019re together like that we\u2019re really a hard team to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma said his squad\u2019s inconsistent performance this season, primarily on offense, led to some surprising wins during a season when the Huskies, now at 31-4, have again won 30 games for the 17th time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know we had it in us,\u201d he said. \u201cMaya was such a huge factor for us in so many ways. We jumped right out of the gate [this year], then somewhere along the way we lost ourselves and I wasn\u2019t sure if we were going to be good enough to get it back. But then we got it back. We could lose Sunday or go to the Final Four and go to the national championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never said that before. But neither of those two things would shock me. This team is capable of anything. The way they\u2019re playing right now, they are capable of doing great things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A trip to the Sweet 16 is the next stop on the road to the Final Four for the Huskies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":56785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-56776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 08:07:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56776"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56801,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56776\/revisions\/56801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/56785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56776"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=56776"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=56776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}