Providence College Athletics
Providence College
(8-16, 3-10)
Connecticut
(23-3, 11-1)
Friars Fall To No. 8 Connecticut
2/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2006
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Barbara Turner had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead No. 8 Connecticut to an 84-58 win over Providence on Wednesday night.
Turner and the Huskies set the tone early with a strong inside game and gave the Friars few second chances at the basket. Charde Houston's consecutive baskets with 10:10 left in the first half capped a 23-6 opening run and the Huskies never let up.
UConn (23-3, 11-1 Big East) finished the game with 20 points off the fastbreak and a season-high 46 points in the paint. Turner and Willnett Croquet combined for 16 first-half rebounds and helped get UConn's transition game rolling.
Freshman Chelsea Marandola led the Friars with a career-high 24 points.
The Friars (8-16, 3-10), under first-year head coach Phil Seymore, are having one of their better seasons in recent years. They've already won more conference games this season than they had the past three years, snapping a 39-game winless streak in the league. But against UConn, not much had changed.
The Huskies have beaten the Friars in 21 straight games by an average of nearly 40 points a game. UConn's last loss against PC was on the road in 1993.
Ann Strother, Ketia Swanier, Houston and Kalana Greene scored 10 points apiece for UConn. Crockett finished with eight boards as the Huskies outrebounded the Friars 40-32. Twenty-nine of those boards were on the defensive end.
Shauna Snyder had 12 points for the Friars.
Providence managed just four field goals in the first 15 minutes of the game. Marandola scored the first five points in a 13-7 run in the final minutes, but the Friars had too much ground to makeup and trailed 41-22 at the break.
The Friars would get within 13 with 11:40 to play on Catherine Bove's layup, but UConn quickly countered with an 8-0 run over the next 2 minutes and cruised the rest of the way.
