“I haven’t even brought that stuff up”, SC coach Dawn Staley said, as she prepared her team for Monday’s game at No. 1 CT. The Huskies will need to be on their A-game to come away with their 100th-straight win.
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With just over a minute left in the first half, the Huskies saw an opportunity and knocked down three in a row, starting with Collier draining her only trey of the night from beyond the arc to take the lead, 31-29.
Samuelson shook off an illness that caused her to miss practice Thursday and Friday and hit eight of her 13 shots from the floor.
“But when it comes to Monday, it’s just about heart and competing”, forward A’ja Wilson said. “Probably everybody in America’s going to be cheering for us so I hope they send positive vibes to Storrs”, Connecticut.
No one has been able to rock the Huskies this season. They will try to make it 100 straight against No. 6 SC on Monday night. Collier led the offensive attack by scoring 25 points with Samuelson almost matching her with 24 points of her own.
UConn hasn’t lost since November 17, 2014 when it was defeated by Stanford. The Falcons blew a 25-point lead with 18 minutes left in the Super Bowl.
Dawn Staley and her Gamecock squad will board a plane Sunday and fly to snowy New England for the nationally televised “Clash of the Titans” Monday (9 p.m., ESPN2) against four-time defending national champion CT. Collier had five of those points, including a layup with one second remaining in the half to give CT a 35-29 lead. It didn’t matter whether the Huskies were dealing with injuries (guard Kia Nurse was limited due to a bad ankle on Monday) or foul trouble or a team-wide case of the flu. “That’s how you stay focused”. But beyond that, he wants someone who is supremely confident in her own ability and someone who impacts whatever team she’s on in multiple ways, making those around her better on and off the court. “We got a good team we’re taking up there”, Staley said.
Wilson played only 23 minutes in Columbia previous year as she reinjured an ankle in the second quarter with the Gamecocks already down double figures. Bianca Cuevas-Moore scored 11, and Alaina Coates contributed 10 points and 15 rebounds.
When the game ended she received a huge hug from assistant coach Marisa Moseley before joining her teammates in celebrating the historic win. It could be next weekend. We’re going into a tough environment and we’ll give it our best shot. “It’s not if. It’s just when”. It will be UConn’s first home sellout crowd since the 2016 Senior Day game against Tulane. It would make the women’s NCAA Tournament more interesting, as some would tune in to see if another team could knock off the Huskies. “Let’s get it over with and move on to the next thing, which is more important in the big scheme of things for these players anyway”.
Team USA was coached by South Carolina’s Dawn Staley.
“I think it’s good for the game for them to get rocked a little bit”, Staley said.
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SMU: The Mustangs travel to Philadelphia to take on Temple on Wednesday night.
