Sitting in the postgame media room late Sunday night you would have thought Renee Montgomery, the Big East Player of the Week, was asked to share her deepest, darkest secrets when she was asked to comment on her brilliant, all-world performance in leading the Huskies to a 106-78 rout of No. 4 Oklahoma. Seated between Maya Moore and Tina Charles, with coach Geno Auriemma flanked to the right of Moore, Montgomery uttered under her breath that it was awkward. It pained her that she was being asked to talk about a performance that was one of the best in team history, one that came on national television with national media on hand.
She completely dodged the question and instead went with a patented team-oriented response.
“I really think Caroline Doty opened it up for us because she hit like four 3s right up top,’’ Renee said. “So they were trying to help off of people. But when you’ve got other people hitting shots you can’t really help off of anyone.’’
Doty, the hotshot freshman, was nasty, nailing all six of the 3-pointers she attempted in setting a team single-game record for 3-point accuracy. But it wasn’t Renee-type numbers. It wasn’t 30 points (12-of-22 FG), six rebounds and 13 assists in 38 minutes. She established a career-high in scoring and assists, tying a team single-game record in assists. It had been almost 17 years since someone had that many assists in a game for the Huskies (Laura Lishness vs. Seton Hall Jan. 12, 1991).
So while Renee wouldn’t give herself a quick pat on the back, her coach certainly took the time and he had plenty to say. He has seen his share of monster performances over the course of his 24 seasons in Storrs. Players named Bascom, Lobo, Wolters, Rizzotti, Sales, Abrosimova, Bird and Taurasi – just to name a few – all had their share during their careers. But Geno found himself thinking long and hard last night if there was one as good as Renee was against Oklahoma. And he couldn’t remember one.
“Kerry Bascom used to put up numbers like that,’’ Geno said. “She was a 6-1 center who shot 45 percent from the 3-point line. She would pile up a lot of points. Diana when she had those 32-point, 36-point games in the NCAA tournament where she just dominated the game. I would have to think really, really hard and go back and check to ever really come up with anything that is better than what I saw (Sunday). She was just … phew. Everybody has Maya Moore on their All-America team. Everybody in the country knows Maya Moore is the best player in the country. I think Renee is trying to make sure she is not the best player on our team.’’
Renee was in charge right from the start. She made a pull-up 3-pointer in transition just two minutes, 38 seconds into the game. She had five assists before the teams had reached the midpoint of the half and she had 10 points with 7:45 left be halftime as UConn led 36-22.
In the second half, she ripped the Sooners apart by scoring 13 of her 20 points in the half during a 22-6 run that transformed the game from interesting to a rout. The Huskies led 61-53 when Renee hit a long 3 in front of the Huskies bench with 14:55 left. And she would score 10 of the team’s final 14 points in the run. In all, she scored those 13 points in a span of 5:11.
“I looked at her line at halftime and I told T.K., my assistant coach, that’s a great line at the end of the game,’’ Sooners coach Sherri Coale said. “At halftime she had nine assists and six rebounds and (10) points. A point guard? Six rebounds? And it just continued. And when she’s in the zone … I think she may be the best point guard in America just because she gets it. She can score going to the rim. She can shoot a pull-up. She can shoot a 3. She can distribute. But she gets the management of the game. I think maybe she took two questionable shots. Otherwise, she just made beautiful decisions and what she did was go right at (Danielle Robinson) when she got in foul trouble and that was a problem. And that’s her senior experience, her headiness. You could tell.’’
What everybody could tell is that Renee is playing the best basketball of her career right now in her final season. She is feisty. She is driven. She is talented. And she is the leader of the most talented team in the country.
The Huskies still have as many as 34 games left. But after five games, there is no doubt that led by a point guard named Montgomery this team has the chance by season’s end to be remembered as one of the best in the team’s illustrious history.
“Two years ago, Renee Montgomery couldn’t have played the game she played (Sunday), because every time they scored she would have wanted to do something real fast to try to make up for the fact that they scored and would do something that was uncharacteristic of her,’’ Geno said. “(Sunday), I told her during one timeout, `This is the evolution now. This is where you now start to realize we’re up 18 or 19, and now we cross the court, we spread the floor out and we’re going to get the shot we want when we want to take it, and they’re not going to have anything to say about it.’ And she just had this smile on her face. And then almost like two possessions later she came down, and I could tell she wanted to shoot it right now. I said something and she pulled it out. I think she shot it anyway, but at least we killed a couple more seconds. But she just isn’t… to be really honest with you, she’s been like this since the first day of practice. She had about a week where she kind of lost it a little bit in practice. But she has been like this since Oct. 18.’’
The performances by Renee, Maya and Caroline drew their share of attention. But the work put in by Tina Charles and Kaili McLaren against three-time All-American Courtney Paris, especially in the first half, was admirable. Sure, Paris finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds in 29 minutes to record her 98th straight double-double. But she had to work for everything she got. And work extremely hard on every possession.
“I got a text from Tamika Williams and she told me this is the first time she’s ever seen Tina Charles play like that where she was like that the whole game, where she didn’t take 5-10 minutes off,’’ Geno said. “She was a factor the entire game. I think she struggled a couple times, but I thought her energy level and her intensity level is as good if not better than I’ve ever seen it. We told her we weren’t going to trap. I told her flat out `We’re not trapping (Paris). You’re on your own. You’re going to have to guard the kid, and that’s all there is to it.’ And I kept saying, `She could get 40, and we could still win.’ That kind of pissed her off a little bit I think. But she was determined she was going to do a great job on her by herself because she knew she wasn’t getting any help.’’
Tina, who finished with a double-double of her own (18 points, 10 rebounds) and four blocks, and McLaren combined to hold Paris scoreless in the first half on 0-of-7 shooting. Paris has posted a double-double 13 times in the first half alone during her career. Not this time.
They bodied her in the lane. They made her run the floor. They completely took her out of her rhythm. Kaili finished with two points, five rebounds and two blocks in 15 valiant minutes off the bench.
“They just did a good job of pushing out,’’ Paris said. “Tina, especially, is so athletic. So we rushed a lot and tried to hook it in. I just wasn’t calming down and looking at the target. They just did a good job of pushing out.’’
Said Tina: “I think it was really good. It was really efficient. Just everything that we went over in shootaround we just accomplished on the court and I think it was just an overall, collective effort. And it turned out well I think for the most part.’’
By this time next week someone will own Geno’s Brioni tie and Sherri’s black Cole Haan handbag. The auction will close this Sunday at 8 p.m. Fans can make charitable bids on both items by logging on to www.genoscancerteam.com or www.wbca.org. The proceeds will benefit the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.
Rich
