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According to various Twitter reports, UConn Class of 2013 commit Saniya Chong scored 29 of her 46 points in the fourth quarter today to lead Ossining to an 89-84 win over Christ the King. The kicker is that she was scoreless in the first quarter.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma and associate had coach Chris Dailey were in attendance.
UConn Class of 2014 target Sierra Calhoun finished with 30 points (15-of-15 FG) for Christ the King.
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Sophomore center Kiah Stokes will miss her fifth straight game Saturday due to a stress reaction in her right shin when the Huskies host No. 5 Notre Dame at Gampel Pavilion. However, there have been signs of progress that she is nearing a return.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma said that Stokes has been able to spend some time on the court today and Thursday. Stokes participated in individual workouts and did “a little halfcourt stuff.’’
“She’s been getting her workouts in and she’s had two days, yesterday and today, where’s she was on the court for maybe 15, 20 minutes,’’ Auriemma said. “And she actually felt pretty good she said. So we’re getting closer to having her out on the floor. I don’t know that tomorrow’s the day. Probably not, my guess is. But we’re getting closer and hopefully sooner rather than later. She could be a big help to us right now.
“Now it’s just a matter of how does she respond to those workouts that she did? Does she come out of those workouts feeling great? Does she come out of those workouts struggling? So far it’s been all good.’’
Stokes still has not been able to take part in fullcourt activity. And she has faced little contact.
“She’s looked great,’’ UConn junior center Stefanie Dolson said. “We’re all really excited to have her back. Today she practiced for a half-hour. So I’m excited to see her back.’’
The Huskies have not yet been at full strength this season due to numerous ailments. Auriemma is eagerly anticipating the day when he will have every roster at his disposal.
“I’m just anxious to get our whole team,’’ Auriemma said. “I don’t know that we’ve had our whole team all year. We haven’t played a game I don’t think with our whole team yet this year. We didn’t have Bria (Hartley) for the longest time. Kaleena (Mosqueda-Lewis). Morgan (Tuck). Kiah. Moriah (Jefferson). And we haven’t really noticed it. It’s not like we’re like, `Wow.’ So it hasn’t really, really affected us. But I’m anxious to get our whole team back. We’re really good when we’ve got our whole team. As good as we played in the Stanford game, when we’ve got our whole team we’re really good because we’ve got a lot of different scenarios that we can put out there.’’
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Junior All-American Bria Hartley had not played less than 14 minutes in the first 85 games of her career. There had been only five games that she had played fewer than 21 minutes during this span, including her first three games this season returning from an ankle injury.
This is why seeing Hartley play only seven minutes at Oregon Monday immediately made you wonder. Was it due to injury? No. Then what was the reason …
UConn coach Geno Auriemma did his best today to smooth over his decision to bench Hartley.
“I just didn’t feel like playing her,’’ Auriemma said. “I thought the other guys deserved to play a little more so I did it. It wasn’t anything in particular. I just thought it was a great opportunity to play those other guys.’’
Hartley, who came out of the game for good with 11:04 left in the first half, did take the time today to explain why she spent so much time on the bench.
“I wasn’t really playing that well, and I think Coach has high standards for me and I have high standards for myself,’’ Hartley said. “So I don’t think I was playing what I was capable of and I have to be a leader for all my teammates, all the freshmen. People like Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson. So you can’t let little things like me not being prepared or not knowing where my man is on the court. You can’t let things like that slide, especially with a player like me. So I just have to make sure I’m paying more attention. And I think that was a good punishment for me to learn.
“It’s just a learning experience. You’ve just got to take it. There’s nothing you can do about that. Just pay attention to details. You come back to practice and you work on the things that you know you need to work on and just work really hard. And that’s the only thing I can say about that.’’
A recruiting source said that Auriemma is heading to Ossining, N.Y. this afternoon to see Ossining High star and UConn Class of 2013 commit Saniya Chong take on Christ the King and UConn Class of 2014 target Sierra Calhoun compete.
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