Despite playing a spirited game, the inability to handle the full court press doomed Nova to long stretches of offensive efficiency in both halves, spoiling any chance for a major upset.
With UConn's normal starting lineup including 6-5 Dolson, the modest 3/4 court pressure caused little problems for Nova to start off and a baseline layup by Sweeney at the 13 minute mark finished up an 8-0 run and had us leading 15-11. At that point Gino went with a small, speedy line-up, going full bore with the press putting all five up at mid-court or closer. For a ten minute stretch Nova shot 0-5 and had 11 turnovers to trail 32-17 at the 3:30 mark. From there, threes by Kane, Burford and Roberts pulled us back within eight but a three ball with nine seconds left put UConn up by 37-26 at the half.
The second half was virtually a repeat of the first. Threes by Sweeney and Roberts and two baskets by Leer got us back to within five at 41-36 with 14 minutes left. At that point Dolson rotated out and the stifling full court press was back on. Nova only scored four baskets the rest of the way with the fourth coming with only 20 seconds left, getting outscored by 31-14 to have UConn winning going away. Tiffany Hayes used her tremendous speed and three point shooting ability to lead the scoring. Rachel Roberts led the way again with 16 points for Nova and is having a fine stretch of games. Nova had 23 turnovers for the game, after coming in leading the nation in only committing about 11 a game.
Bottom line, we beat their starting line-up by 10 points and got crushed by their five guard line-up by 33 points. An announced crowd of 3,200 saw a Nova team that apparently had shrugged off the heartbreaking loss at Marquette Tuesday night to play tough defense and shoot the ball reasonably well against a top five team. The inability to get past the mid-court line against the full bore press was disappointing, but not totally unexpected. After not utilizing the press against us the past two years, it was anticipated that Gino expected to have to put some pressure on us this year and they certainly did so. Look for Rutgers to attempt to do the same to us later this year.
An incredibly important game on Tuesday as the final non-conference and Big Five title game against Penn. Assuming a loss coming up on Saturday at Notre Dame, we need to get back into the win column against an improved Penn team to get some confidence back before heading into a stretch of winnable Big East games. A loss to Penn and we are pretty much out of any consideration for an NCAA bid and potentially on the way to the season spiralling out of control.
ESPN game story and photos in attached link.
ESPN game story and photos Nova-UConn
With UConn's normal starting lineup including 6-5 Dolson, the modest 3/4 court pressure caused little problems for Nova to start off and a baseline layup by Sweeney at the 13 minute mark finished up an 8-0 run and had us leading 15-11. At that point Gino went with a small, speedy line-up, going full bore with the press putting all five up at mid-court or closer. For a ten minute stretch Nova shot 0-5 and had 11 turnovers to trail 32-17 at the 3:30 mark. From there, threes by Kane, Burford and Roberts pulled us back within eight but a three ball with nine seconds left put UConn up by 37-26 at the half.
The second half was virtually a repeat of the first. Threes by Sweeney and Roberts and two baskets by Leer got us back to within five at 41-36 with 14 minutes left. At that point Dolson rotated out and the stifling full court press was back on. Nova only scored four baskets the rest of the way with the fourth coming with only 20 seconds left, getting outscored by 31-14 to have UConn winning going away. Tiffany Hayes used her tremendous speed and three point shooting ability to lead the scoring. Rachel Roberts led the way again with 16 points for Nova and is having a fine stretch of games. Nova had 23 turnovers for the game, after coming in leading the nation in only committing about 11 a game.
Bottom line, we beat their starting line-up by 10 points and got crushed by their five guard line-up by 33 points. An announced crowd of 3,200 saw a Nova team that apparently had shrugged off the heartbreaking loss at Marquette Tuesday night to play tough defense and shoot the ball reasonably well against a top five team. The inability to get past the mid-court line against the full bore press was disappointing, but not totally unexpected. After not utilizing the press against us the past two years, it was anticipated that Gino expected to have to put some pressure on us this year and they certainly did so. Look for Rutgers to attempt to do the same to us later this year.
An incredibly important game on Tuesday as the final non-conference and Big Five title game against Penn. Assuming a loss coming up on Saturday at Notre Dame, we need to get back into the win column against an improved Penn team to get some confidence back before heading into a stretch of winnable Big East games. A loss to Penn and we are pretty much out of any consideration for an NCAA bid and potentially on the way to the season spiralling out of control.
ESPN game story and photos in attached link.
ESPN game story and photos Nova-UConn