UConn women's basketball

A recruiting source has confirmed that Erica McCall, a 6-foot-3 forward from Bakersfield, Calif., is the latest player to surface on UConn’s radar for the Class of 2013. Huskies’ assistant coach Marisa Moseley attended one of her games during a West Coast recruiting trip last week.

McCall, who was a member of the 2011 gold-medal U.S. U-16 team, amassed 1,203 points, 888 rebounds, 64 assists, 102 steals and 468 blocks in 64 games during her first two seasons at Ridgeview High School. She has already set school records for points, rebounds and blocks.

McCall is averaging 26.0 points (57.9 percent FG), 17.0 rebounds and 7.6 blocks this season for the Wolf Pack. She is the sister of former Auburn All-American and current member of the Phoenix Mercury DeWanna Bonner. Her father, Greg, is the head women’s basketball coach at CSU Bakersfield.

The Huskies are also involved with juniors Diamond DeShields, a 6-1 wing from Norcross, Ga., Taya Reimer, a 6-3 forward from Fishers, Ind., Karlie Samuelson, a 5-11 guard from Huntington Beach, Calif., and Saniya Chong, 5-9 guard from Ossining, N.Y.

Rich

Not only was freshman center Kiah Stokes not bringing enough energy and effort to practice earlier this season, she lacked toughness in the lane too. She said that she would shy away from contact instead of initiating it.

That seems to be no longer the case judging by her performance last week in wins over No. 5 Duke and No. 17 Rutgers. Stokes generated four points and season-highs of 12 rebounds, five blocks and 28 minutes in outplaying Duke’s 6-foot-3 star freshman center Elizabeth Williams Jan. 30. Stokes followed with 10 points, five rebounds and one block in 15 minutes in battling Rutgers’ 6-2 post player Monique Oliver Saturday.

“The coaches have really impressed on me to make contact first,’’ Stokes said. “And I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job of that and I know that my teammates have noticed it. They come up to me after the games and I appreciate that. And I love what they do for me as well.’’

Adding a toughness factor to her game has further fueled what has been a remarkable turnaround for Stokes. She is averaging 6.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 16.9 minutes in seven games since being benched for the second time at Villanova Jan. 14.

Rich

Here is my advance for tonight’s game at Louisville …

The UConn women’s basketball team boasts several players with deft shooting and playing-making ability in its four-guard lineup. And freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis has proven to a prolific scorer off the bench.

Entering tonight’s game against No. 20 Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center (7; CBSSN), the third-ranked Huskies are ranked fourth in the nation in scoring (79.8). They are first in field goal percentage (.489), assists (20.4) and assist to turnover ratio (1.4), 13th in made 3-pointers per game (7.5) and 16th in 3-point shooting percentage (.365).

The statistics are certainly impressive. But UConn has proven this season that it is equally as productive defensively. Arguably the best in the nation. And it is in this phase of the game where the Huskies do not receive their due recognition.

“I don’t know that you can have anywhere near the kind of success that we’ve had without being able to play the kind of defense that we’ve played,’’ UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I think those two things go hand-in-hand with however many number of games or Big East championships or tournament championships or national championships. None of those would be possible if we weren’t a really, really good defensive team. And you have to be a good defensive team every year. It can’t be like some years you are, some years you’re not. And we probably don’t get the credit that some other people might get because we don’t talk about it. We don’t have any special defenses and special presses and we don’t have fancy names for what we do defensively. And we’ve had so many really good offensive players play for us that it’s easy to overlook that their good defensive players, because everybody’s just so fixated on how good they are offensively. And that’s OK. I don’t mind that.’’

A prerequisite to playing at UConn is having the ability to score. However, the ability and the desire to play defense is what earns playing time in Auriemma’s system. And this team, led by junior Kelly Faris, takes great pride in shutting down the opposition.

The Huskies (21-2, 9-1 Big East) lead the nation in scoring defense (44.6) and field goal percentage defense (.300), which would account for team single-season records if the season ended today. They would also tie the Division I record in field goal percentage, which they set during the undefeated season of 2009-10.

UConn, who is ranked sixth nationally with a plus-12.7 rebounding advantage, has held 13 opponents to their lowest scoring output of the season.

“They do a great job of switching,’’ Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. “A lot of people don’t give them credit for their defense. They play out in passing lanes. They pressure the ball. They play personnel as well as anybody I’ve seen.’’

The Huskies utilize only two true post players in their eight-man rotation – 6-foot-5 sophomore Stefanie Dolson and 6-3 freshman Kiah Stokes. This has afforded Auriemma the opportunity to employ more fullcourt pressure this season.

UConn’s pressure, as well as its active halfcourt man-to-man defensive looks, has produced an average of 21.3 turnovers and 12.5 steals, which is ranked 13th nationally and would also account for a team single-season record.

The Huskies have forced at least 20 turnovers in 14 games this season, and at least 25 in seven games. Fifth-ranked Duke (15), No. 1 Baylor (14) and South Florida (12) are the only teams that have committed less than 16.

UConn has converted these turnovers into 576 points (25.0).

“I think coming into this year we thought we could be a really good defensive team,’’ Dolson said. “And I think we’ve lived up to it so far, but we still have a lot of room to get better. I think defense for us every year there’s always an emphasis on it. And we had a couple games where Coach wasn’t pleased with our defense. So I think we’ve definitely been stepping up our defense just to prove to him and everyone else that our defense is the best in the country and that we can just buckle down and not let people score.’’

Second-ranked Notre Dame (74; OT), Baylor (66), South Florida (62) and West Virginia (60) are the only teams to reach 60 against the Huskies. There have been 15 teams that have failed to reach 50 and 11 that have failed to reach 40.

Also, 11 teams have shot below 30.0 percent from the field. Only Baylor (47.9) and West Virginia (44.9) have shot better than 40.0 percent.

The Huskies last week held Duke and No. then-No. 13 Rutgers to a combined 79 points and 26.5 percent shooting from the field, holding both teams to season-lows in scoring and shooting percentage.

“This particular group … I’m surprised, but we’re a really good defensive team,’’ Auriemma said. “Maybe the fact that we’ve got four interchangeable players. We switch a lot of screens. It’s difficult for teams to get comfortable against us because you might have a different kid guarding you every time down the floor. But the effort (has been) unbelievable. We kind of pride ourselves on that. We think we’re the best defensive team in the country. Kids buy into that.’’

While the Huskies are ultimately who must execute during games, Auriemma gave credit to the scouting reports prepared by associate head coach Chris Dailey and assistant coaches Marisa Moseley Shea Ralph.

Auriemma said that Ralph prepared the scouting report for Rutgers. Moseley will assemble the report for Louisville. Dailey will do so for No. 14 Georgetown Saturday and then the cycle will return to Ralph for UConn’s game at Oklahoma Feb. 13.

“One thing that doesn’t maybe get as much notoriety is the scouting reports that our guys come up with, Chris, Marisa and Shea,’’ Auriemma said. “They take it real seriously. Those guys are really, really serious about this stuff and all three of them, when it’s their turn, they are really into the scouting report and they make sure that the players are really into it. And by the time game time comes around there’s very little that our players don’t know that they have to know about what we’re trying to do and how we’re going to defend them. Preparation is a big, big part. Defense is a lot of effort, don’t get me wrong. And so is rebounding. Those two things are all about effort. No question.’’

UConn has proven the ability repeatedly lock down the opposition is a collective effort. And, while the Huskies might not gain a great deal of notoriety for their success defensively, it does not come as a surprise to the players.

In their minds, they believe that their success is a byproduct of the significant amount of time that they spend on the defensive part of the game in practice.

“The goal for our defense really is to make it look like we have six players on the court to their five,’’ Mosqueda-Lewis said. “We’ve got to be everywhere at once. We try to outsmart the other team, basically. We’ve been working on it so much in practice that we’re just like no one should ever score on us. So I think when you take that much pride in your defense and you work on it so much you’re definitely going to be a little (mad) when they actually get a bucket.’’

Rich

The Huskies are urging all fans to wear pink to Saturday’s game against No. 14 Georgetown at Gampel Pavilion (4 p.m.). The game will be part of the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund’s “Play 4 Kay’’ initiative.

UConn is offering $10 tickets, while supplies last. That’s $12 off of the regular price. To take advantage of this offer, click here and enter the promo code “PINK.’’

Fans can also donate to the cause at this site…

Rich

The spurt spanned only 68 seconds in the first half Saturday. But during the spurt Huskies’ senior guard Tiffany Hayes put on a show to help the Huskies pull away from No. 13 Rutgers.

Hayes scored eight straight points to ignite a 19-2 run. She opened by making a jumper just inside the 3-point arc with 13:42 left in the half. She followed with a 3-pointer with 13:16 left and completed her individual run with a three-point play off a scoop shot down the lane 42 seconds later.

It was the beginning of another complete performance for Hayes. As there have been many of these in the last month. The latest helped UConn bury the Scarlet Knights 66-34.

Hayes collected 14 points, five rebounds, seven assists and three steals in 34 minutes. She committed just one turnover.

“I think as we are seeing throughout the season that Tiffany is such a versatile player, that’s she’s just becoming one of those players that you just can’t stop,’’ UConn freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis said. “Tiffany definitely sets the tempo for our team. Whenever she’s doing great, the rest of the team’s doing great. And whenever she’s down, the whole team’s kind of like `Oh, my gosh. What are we going to do right now?’’’

Hayes has now had at least five rebounds in a career-high eight straight games and in 11 of the last 12 overall. She has also reached double figures in scoring in 11 of the last 12 games and has had at least three assists in five straight games and at least three steals in four of the last six.

Through the first 23 games this season, Hayes is averaging career-highs of 16.0 points, which leads the team, 5.8 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 29.2 minutes. She is also averaging 3.5 assists, shooting career-highs of 54.3 percent from the field and 42.0 percent from 3-point range and is second on the team with 47 offensive rebounds.

“She’s been in a really, really good flow,’’ UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “And (Saturday) we talked about it in the locker room afterwards. It’s not about somebody has to get 35 or 33 or whatever the case may be. If everybody just does enough, it’s going to be enough for us to win most games that we play. And for Tiffany to have seven assists, what else are you going to do? You have to guard her. And if you guard her and she’s finding people open … and she’s rebounding the best of her career. I just think there’s a level that she’s playing at now. And some night shots aren’t going to go in, I understand that. But she’s in kind of a … that momentum that she has just kind of keeps pushing her forward.’’

Speaking of momentum … Is there any question that freshman Kiah Stokes has plenty of it right now too. She has clearly turned the corner and has gained an understanding of exactly what the Huskies need from her every day in practice and in games.

Stokes was again impressive against Rutgers, finishing with 10 points, five rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal in 15 minutes. She did not commit a turnover.

When asked if she was a different player right now than she was weeks ago, a smile lit up her face.

“Definitely. I know my teammates are trusting me more, which gives me more confidence and gives them more confidence in me,’’ Stokes said. “And each day at practice the coaches aren’t yelling at me to go harder. They’re yelling at me for, `Oh you should’ve made that cut or this cut.’ So it’s just different. But it’s a lot better.’’

Stokes has raised her season averages to 4.9 points and 4.8 rebounds in 13.7 minutes. She is averaging 6.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 16.9 minutes over the last seven games in what has been a breakout stretch for her.

“I think there was just a little switch that went off,’’ UConn starting center Stefanie Dolson said. “I think she has a different mentality during practice and is just playing extremely hard. So I think it just translates onto the court the past couple of games. So hopefully she just keeps improving.’’

Kelly Faris played in the 100th game of her career Saturday.

Rich

Here is my advance for Saturday’s game against Rutgers …

The shots have looked the same to UConn freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis over the past two games. Each one she took she felt as though it was going in the basket. Just it did when she scored 25 points in back-to-back games against Pacific and Stanford earlier this season and again at DePaul Jan. 21.

The major difference in wins over South Florida and No. 5 Duke, however, is the ball did not find the basket with any sense of regularity. In fact, Mosqueda-Lewis finds herself in another shooting slump as the third-ranked Huskies head into Saturday’s game against No. 13 Rutgers at Gampel Pavilion (7; CPTV).

Mosqueda-Lewis is a combined 4-of-20 from the field in this span. She is 3-of-12 from 3-point range. And, as is the case with many elite shooters, she is placing pressure on herself to shed her woes and score.

“I know my team really relies on me for my shooting, and I really rely on myself,’’ Mosqueda-Lewis said. “I kind of put a lot of pressure on myself to actually score and make shots because you know if you practice something so much you expect to perform, you expect to actually profit from working out that much.’’

Mosqueda-Lewis is averaging 5.5 points in the last two games. She scored five points (2-of-10 FG; 1-of-6 3-pointers) in 29 minutes against South Florida Jan. 28 and she had six points (2-of-10 FG; 2-of-6 3-pointers) in 29 minutes at Duke Monday. It is the first time Mosqueda-Lewis has failed to reach double figures in scoring in back-to-back this season.

This is the second time this season that Mosqueda-Lewis has been mired in a 4-of-20 slump over two games. She has also endured a 9-of-31 stretch over two games and she had a three-game stretch where she was 9-of-30.

Mosqueda-Lewis had her off-days shooting during her All-American career at Mater Dei High in California. But she admitted that she didn’t have as many as she has had already at UConn.

“I think she can fix it,’’ UConn assistant coach Shea Ralph said. “I just don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong. I just think she needs to grow up a little bit, and I think that can happen. The more situations we put her in like that, the more chance she has to get out of it. I think she’s a competitor so I think she wants to. And that’s half the battle.’’

Mosqueda-Lewis has been getting extra shots in on her own in between classes or in between practices. And she has also spent time working with UConn guard Bria Hartley.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma has been providing her with positive reinforcement. But he knows that Mosqueda-Lewis emerging from her slump goes well beyond words of encouragement.

“When you release it you either think it’s going in or you think it’s not,’’ Auriemma said. “I think she knows and I think everybody else on the team knows that when she’s open she’s going to shoot it. And she should. I think, more importantly, the thing we want to make sure is we keep getting her open and she keeps getting the same number, nine or 10 3s a night. So I feel like if we get her 10 Saturday night she’s going to make a bunch and we get her 10 on Tuesday night (at Louisville) she’s going to make a bunch. Nothing that happened last game is going to change my mind.’’

To her credit, Mosqueda has not allowed her difficulty shooting the ball alter her focus in other areas of the game. She has continued to be productive defensively and is averaging 7.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists over the last two games.

Mosqueda-Lewis has had at least seven rebounds in a season-high five straight games.

“The one thing that I want to make sure doesn’t happen is that you don’t get tentative all the way around,’’ Auriemma said. “I don’t want Kaleena to be defined as `I’m a shooter.’ I hope she didn’t come 3,000 miles to shoot the ball. I hope she came here to play basketball. If you get here as a high school All-American and you’re a freshman and you look up and there really aren’t two, three college All-Americans on your team, life’s not going to be so easy for you. So it hasn’t been easy, but she has been really good.’’

Mosqueda-Lewis is averaging 14.1 points, which ranks third on the team, on 41.4 percent shooting from the field (36.2 3-pointers) through the first 22 games. She is also third on the team in rebounds (5.5) and minutes (27.9) and is averaging 2.0 assists.

Mosqueda-Lewis has proven to be an all-around basketball player. Right now she is trying to remain positive that her deft shooting ability will soon return.

“I just try to go out to every game with the same mindset that it’s just another game, just go out and play hard, play the way that you have been in practice and everything should be going pretty well for you,’’ Mosqueda-Lewis said. “I think it’s just a mental thing for me right now. I’ve just got to get it together.’’

Rich

UConn has won seven straight games against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights enter Saturday’s meeting with the Huskies at Gampel Pavilion reeling after a 54-36 loss at No. 20 Georgetown Jan. 28 and a 71-41 loss to No. 2 Notre Dame at home Tuesday.

Rutgers has shot a combined 30.5 percent from the field (1-of-21 3-pointers) in the two games. The Scarlet Knights likely will also be without senior point guard Khadijah Rushdan for the second straight game due to a concussion suffered against Georgetown. Rushdan is second on the team in scoring (12.7), steals (1.3) and minutes (28.3) and first in assists (3.7).

Still, UConn coach Geno Auriemma is hardly taking Rutgers lightly. To him, it’s still Rutgers and he expects another physical, defensive-oriented game.

“Obviously, they’re a much different team without (Rushdan) in the lineup,’’ Auriemma said. “She’s I think a fifth-year senior if I’m not mistaken. She’s been there through a lot of different scenarios. And I know in the DePaul game (a 65-64 win Jan. 24) when they were struggling she pretty much took the game in her own hands. And you’ve seen what happened the last two games where they’ve struggled a little bit without her. But at the same time with April Sykes and Erica Wheeler, you’ve got two of the better players in our league. So I know they’ve struggled the last couple of games, but Rutgers is Rutgers. They make you struggle too. So that’s why it’s so impressive that DePaul went in there and played them great and lost a heartbreaker. And Notre Dame went in there and they must have played really, really well. I just think it’s Rutgers. And year in and year out you’re going to get the same kind of game. It’s going to be a defensive struggle. It’s going to be hard to get good shots. It’s going to be hard to get points. It’s going to be very physical. So regardless of who’s in the lineup or who’s starting, who’s not starting, who’s hurt, who’s not hurt, it’s still Rutgers.’’

The Scarlet Knights are the last team to beat the Huskies at both Gampel Pavilion (60-56 Feb. 7, 2006) and at the XL Center (55-47 March 6, 2007).

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer continues to hold out hope that Rushdan will be able to play tomorrow.

“I’m holding my breath hoping that the trainer comes to me (with the OK) when everybody else is on the floor warming up,’’ Stringer said. “We just don’t know. It’s day to day.’’

Rich

The Huskies had seen Kevin Hart perform in movies such as Scary Movie 4, Soul Plane, Fool’s Gold, Along Came Polly and Superhero Movie. They have see some of his stand-up comedy clips on YouTube. And they were in attendance Wednesday when Hart headlined UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.

Now the Huskies can say that they played basketball against Hart at Gampel Pavilion too.

“We went to the show,’’ freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis said. “We were waiting afterwards and hoping that maybe he’ll walk out. We talked to the other comedians and got to know them. They were super chill. They were like, `We’ve seen some of your games.’ And there was like other people around. We were taking pictures with all the comedians and then all of a sudden they were like, `Kevin’s a basketball fan too.’ And we were like, `Oh that’s cool.’ And then somehow we started talking about basketball and they were like, `Oh yeah, we’ll play you guys….’ We came over the Gampel and we were here just getting shots up because we were all here after the Kevin Hart show. And the whole crew shows up. They’re like, `Let’s go. We’re going to get you guys. Up to 11.’ We ended up playing like five games of 5-on-5 full court.’’

The Huskies never back down from a challenge. They took on Hart and his crew, beating them in every game.

“They weren’t very good,’’ sophomore Stefanie Dolson said. “It was hilarious.’’

The only members of the Huskies that did not play were Caroline Doty, Lauren Engeln and Michala Johnson.

“It was a lot of fun,’’ Mosqueda-Lewis said. “The last (game) was pretty close. They were getting … Pride was in the way. One was really athletic and then Kevin was pretty good. Like you could tell when he was younger he was good. He was crossing people over, pull-up jump shots. I was like, `Dang, he’s good.’ And he’s all of 5-foot-4. He’s short.’’

Here is one of Hart’s tweets regarding the pick-up games: “Big S/O 2 @kstokes41 @bbybri13 @tiphayes3 @MJ_Mickey25 @LCE12 @bigmommastef @kaleena23 @Breezyyy14 @cdoty5 The Lady Huskies, we let yall win”

 Rich