An unfamiliar scene unfolded at Manley Field House last night. Cops directed bumper-to-bumper traffic outside the overcrowded parking lots. Flashbulbs fluttered throughout the pregame shootaround. Even 30 minutes after the final buzzer, herds of young girls stood in the frigid weather hoping to get an autograph.

And it was all because the circus known as the Connecticut women’s basketball team had come to town.

‘It’s always fun going out to a different city and seeing that many people come out for a game,’ Connecticut senior Diana Taurasi said. ‘Every time I step on the court and see that many people showing support, it makes me play with a little more fire. For these people, they don’t get to see us play most of the time, so you just have to go out there and prove yourself.’

The defending national champions and No. 2 ranked Huskies certainly met expectations, as they defeated the Orangewomen, 82-38, in front of 3,442 onlookers – the second-largest crowd ever to watch a women’s basketball game at Manley.

But despite the buzzing atmosphere and record crowd, SU senior point guard Julie McBride said she considered it just another game for the Orangewomen.

‘Yeah it’s UConn – they have it on their shirts,’ McBride said. ‘I know all the players, and they are great players. But if you are going to step on the court and say, ‘Oh god, it’s UConn,’ you’re never going to have a chance. So we just have to look at it like it’s just another game.’

Tracy Takes On

Tracy Harbut followed her senior teammate’s lead and played 29 fearless minutes against the heralded Huskies.

‘It was real exciting for me,’ Harbut said, ‘but (Connecticut) is just like any other team to me. I feel you should come out the same way for every team.’

Coming off a career-best four points in last Saturday’s loss to West Virginia, Harbut poured in 10 points to join McBride as the only Orangewomen to reach double figures.

‘I didn’t try to force the situation,’ said Harbut, who sported a Carmelo Anthony-type look with an orange headband wrapped around newly braided cornrows. ‘I just let the open shots come to me. Whatever the defense gave me.’

With the Orangewomen shooting so many 3-pointers in the first-half, Harbut took advantage by slicing through for better looks in the paint. And once inside, she converted the old-fashioned way – by using the glass.

Harbut used a nice touch to bank in several floaters inside the lane to keep Syracuse’s inside game afloat. She converted 5 of 6 from the field, with her one miss coming on a short bank shot that rattled in and out.

‘I’ve definitely been working on my shot,’ Harbut said.

Smothering defense

Harbut wasn’t ready for everything, though.

With 4:53 remaining in the first half and two Huskies trapping her on the perimeter, she called timeout – SU’s fifth and final one for the entire game.

And that’s the kind of night it was for Syracuse – overwhelmed and out of options.

‘Our defense always plays good,’ UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said. ‘It’s not easy to defend sometimes five guards that want to shoot 3s. Their system is good and is going to be hard to defend in the future when they get different players in here that have run it for a couple of years.’

In the meantime, UConn had it figured out. The Huskies forced 18 turnovers and used constant pressure to trap Syracuse guards on the perimeter, giving them minimal open looks.

As a result, Syracuse nearly ran the shot clock out on several occasions. Most of those possessions ended in forced 3-pointers, but as guard Krystalyn Ellerbe showed, even that was difficult.

Midway through the first half, Ellerbe found herself in another trap on the perimeter. She tried to unload a 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining on the shot clock, but Taurasi smothered it.

After recovering her shot, Ellerbe then looked left to pass around the 6-foot defender. But Taurasi had that covered, too. Finally, Ellerbe heaved a lob in the direction of SU center Chineze Nwagbo. But before the ball ever reached Nwagbo, the shot clock expired and another SU turnover marred the box score.

‘They have so many good athletes with size and range,’ Cieplicki said. ‘That’s what makes their defense so good.’

This and that

Nwagbo came up slowly midway through the second half after she tumbled to the ground grabbing a rebound. She was not made available for comment after the game, but Cieplicki said he didn’t think Nwagbo was injured. … It was a ladies night of sorts at Manley Field House yesterday. At halftime all the women’s sports teams walked onto center court, where they were honored for their achievements. … Connecticut blue dominated the crowd of 3,442. Several girls stood in the bleachers with U-C-O-N-N spelled out across their white tank tops. One fan held a sign that said, ‘Geno is God.’… The biggest ovation of the night came during the reading of the starting lineups. And it wasn’t for anyone donning an orange jersey. Instead, it was for Taurasi.

Published on February 11, 2004 at 12:00 pm