dlyon  Dec 8 2004 - 11:25am  Local Sports   

WORCESTER — Freshman center Bridget Durette had 12 points and 12 rebounds and her defense helped shut down Clark University’s top offensive player in a 74-57 victory for the Eastern Connecticut State University women’s basketball team on Tuesday night at the Kneller Center.
The win for Eastern (3-3) over Clark (5-2), an NCAA tournament qualifier last year, snaps the Cougars’ 3-game winning streak.
Three minutes into the game, Eastern took the lead for good. Trailing by two, Eastern did not allow Clark to score from the floor during a span of 8:30. The Warriors out-scored Clark 14-3 over that stretch to move out to a 9-point, 20-11 lead midway through the first half.

dlyon  Dec 8 2004 - 8:44am  Local Sports   

By MIKE SYPHER
Chronicle Sports Editor
STORRS — Charlie Villanueva did not need to check out the numbers on the stat sheets to realize he was in a funk.
Touted as one of the favorites to assume the ‘go to’ role on this year’s edition of the University of Connecticut men’s basketball Huskies, Villanueva was slogging through the pair of exhibition contests here at home, four more in London and the first three regular-season contests.
Slowed by a lack of confidence and thoughts of his mother rehabbing at home in Brooklyn, New York in the wake of a freakish automobile accident, Villanueva was playing for the Huskies, but he wasn’t playing…….

dlyon  Dec 8 2004 - 8:42am  Local Sports   

By MIKE SYPHER
Chronicle Sports Editor
STORRS — Jim Calhoun remembers another time, another place where he experienced a blackout.
“I’ve blacked out in a game before,” said Calhoun. “A few years ago at Michigan State, I don’t remember the whole game.
“All of a sudden I look up and we’re down 42. I think I blacked out in that game and came to on the plane later.”
Well, Calhoun’s University of Connecticut men’s basketball Huskies were not matched up against Michigan State on Monday night, but the veteran coach, the opposing Northeastern Huskies and the usual assortment of 10,167 fans were treated to a ‘lights out’ performance by the hosts as No. 7 nationally-ranked UConn (4-0) rolled to a 97-60 victory.

dlyon  Dec 8 2004 - 8:41am  Local Sports   

By RICH ZALUSKY
Chronicle Sports Writer
HARTFORD — The discussion crops up all the time among members of the University of Connecticut women’s basketball coaching staff.
And it’s all about freshman Charde Houston.
“We have it all the time about where is she and where is she going to get by the end of the season,” said UConn coach Geno Auriemma. “She’s got so much natural ability, she’s got so many things that she can do. Little by little, she’s moving in that direction.”
Houston, who was named Big East Conference freshman of the week after on Monday averaging 13.5 points and seven rebounds in wins last week over South Florida and Holy Cross, is slowly gaining confidence while learning the offensive side of things in Husky Land, which takes a long time considering all of the intricacies involved.

dlyon  Dec 8 2004 - 8:39am  Local Sports   

Rich Zalusky
It’s happened time and time again in the past.
The buildup which goes along with a match-up between the teacher and the student.
You’ve seen it before on the men’s side of college basketball.
Roy Williams and Dean Smith…….
Steve Alford and Bobby Knight…….
And tonight, that buildup will wind its way around again, this time stepping into the Hartford Civic Center.
However, if University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma had any say about the matter, things would center around a basketball game.
But he knows that’s not going to be the case.

dlyon  Dec 6 2004 - 10:39am  Local Sports   

GORHAM, Maine — Junior forward Ashley Marble had 12 points and 10 rebounds to lead the University of Southern Maine women’s basketball team to a 75-69 victory over visiting Eastern Connecticut State University in Saturday afternoon’s Little East Conference opener for both teams at Warren Hill Gymnasium.
The win is the seventh straight for Southern Maine (3-2 overall, 1-0 Little East) over Eastern (2-3, 0-1). Ranked No. 10 nationally, Southern Maine has won or shared 16-of-18 conference regular-season titles.
With 15 points each, first-year sophomore guard Michelle Bruneau and sophomore forward Sandy Mosley shared game-high scoring honors for Eastern. Bruneau, who had totaled just 13 points in the team’s last three games, also equaled her career-high with five rebounds. She was 8-for-8 from the foul line.

dlyon  Dec 6 2004 - 10:38am  Local Sports   

By RICH ZALUSKY
Chronicle Sports Writer
HARTFORD — Being goal oriented.
That’s what University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma is trying to teach his team to become.
It’s something that he has used with Husky teams in the past. However, with the recent success of the past few years and with the quality of talent that was in abundance, talk of goals was put on the back burner.
The times, they are a changing…….
It’s a list consisting of 14 goals that Auriemma would like to see his players accomplish every time they step out onto the court.
On Sunday afternoon, they accomplished nine of them.

dlyon  Dec 6 2004 - 10:37am  Local Sports   

STORRS — The University of Connecticut football team held its annual awards banquet on Sunday afternoon at the Rome Commons Ballroom on the Storrs campus.
The Huskies recently completed their 2004 regular season with a 7-4 overall record and 3-3 mark in their inaugural season of Big East Conference competition. UConn has earned its first-ever bowl game berth and the Huskies will face Toledo in the Motor City Bowl on Dec. 27 at 5:30 p.m. at Ford Field in Detroit.
The team’s most valuable player award was split between Alfred Fincher and Dan Orlovsky, not merely based upon their strong and consistent on-field performances, but more for what they have meant throughout their careers to the program.

dlyon  Dec 6 2004 - 10:35am  Local Sports   

When University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun summoned Marcus Williams from the bench and told him to sub in, the sophomore point guard hesitated.
Didn’t Calhoun say go in for Rashad Anderson, UConn’s sharp-shooting wing man? Didn’t Calhoun mean for him to go in for Antonio Kellogg, one of UConn’s prized freshmen who is his understudy at the point?
“I stopped for a second, but then I remembered how it goes in practice sometimes,” said Williams, who beckoned for Anderson with his Huskies trailing Indiana, 54-41, with 13:05 remaining in Saturday’s nationally-televised game at the Hartford Civic Center.

dlyon  Dec 6 2004 - 10:32am  Local Sports   

By MIKE SYPHER
Chronicle Sports Editor
HARTFORD — Marshall Strickland grabbed the long rebound and eased the ball upcourt. Finding himself with several feet of open space beyond the 3-point arc on the left wing, the junior guard set up and let fly with a long jumper.
Swish!
Less than a minute later, Indiana teammate Robert Vaden drove the lane and was fouled before calmly dropping in a pair of foul shots.
The Hoosiers were standing tall as 16,294 fans at the Hartford Civic Center grew silent. Their University of Connecticut Huskies were staring up from a deep 13-point hole, trailing their guests by a 54-41 margin with 13:05 remaining in Saturday’s men’s basketball game featured on CBS.