UConn’s game at Memphis certainly wasn’t pretty. With the Tigers within striking distance until the final minute, it felt like the tide could change at any moment. It was so bad that early in the fourth quarter Geno Auriemma threw a water bottle in frustration into an empty row of seats behind him.
But Tuesday night at Memphis’ Elma Roane Fieldhouse, the Huskies still managed to do what they do best in American Athletic Conference play: Win.
After trailing for the majority of the first half and having to ward off a stubborn Memphis squad that pulled within three early in the fourth quarter, No. 4 UConn escaped with a 68-56 win over the Tigers despite playing one of its more uninspiring outings of the season.
UConn’s all-time AAC record improved to 125-0 with the win. While the score remained within single digits for most of the night, UConn’s 12-point victory ensured that the program still has only one conference win by single digits over the last seven seasons — to Tulane in February 2017.
UConn’s offense was in a rut for large stretches of the game and struggled to hit shots early, but senior Crystal Dangerfield’s 24 points, including seven in the decisive fourth quarter, helped make up for that sluggishness. The senior also hit all six of her free throws, four of which came in the last period.
“I thought Crystal was tremendous the whole game, not just at the end,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “When you’re a senior and you’ve played as much basketball as she has, it’s good that you know you can do this on the road.”
Things were off for the Huskies from the start, as UConn turned the ball over on three of its first four possessions. Though the Huskies gained a five-point lead off two baskets from Christyn Williams, Memphis used an 11-0 run to end the quarter up 21-15. The Huskies coughed up the ball seven times in the frame and sent Memphis to the line eight times, which combined accounted for 13 of the Tigers’ first 21 points.
Though Auriemma mixed up the lineups in the second, subbing in all four reserves at various points and keeping Williams on the bench after she picked up her second foul, Dangerfield hit a pair from the line and a floater in the paint to propel the Huskies back ahead. Memphis answered with a three, but Anna Makurat’s own trey with 32 seconds left in the half gave UConn the 35-33 advantage going into the break. The Huskies only led for four minutes of the first half.
Memphis’ zone gave UConn lots of looks from the perimeter, but its shots weren’t falling. The Huskies went 5-for-16 from beyond the arc in the first half alone before rededicating themselves to funneling their offense through the paint in the second half.
“We have a tendency to stand around and we got caught standing around a lot today,” Auriemma said. “We were much better in the second half because we got the ball in the lane and we scored in the lane. But that whole first half, when you can’t score in the lane, then you just give up on it and just start jacking up jump shots.”
Despite only making one of her four shots from the floor in the first half, Olivia Nelson-Ododa upped her aggression upon her return to the court, scoring two baskets after halftime to get UConn off to a hot start. She ultimately went 3-for-4 in the second half, during which she grabbed six of her nine rebounds, and finished with four blocks.
“That’s basically where it all lies with with Liv. We can’t afford to have her be a 6-5 jump shooter,” Auriemma said. “We need her to be an aggressive defensive presence and aggressive offensive player in the lane, and she’s lost some of that aggressiveness. She’s struggling with it, but she got it back a little bit, so maybe the second half was a good step.”
After Nelson-Ododa’s spurt, Memphis twice made it a one-possession game in the third before Williams took things into her own hands, helping UConn build an 11-point advantage off several strong takes to the basket and some free throws.
“[Auriemma] literally yelled at me, ‘take her,” Williams said of that stretch. “So then that’s when I scored those points. When I did that, I thought it shook energy in us and helped us in the long run.”
The Huskies’ lead was cut to nine going into the final frame after they gave up a Memphis basket in the paint with under 10 seconds remaining in the third, momentum the Tigers carried into the final 10 minutes. Memphis scored the first six points of the fourth to pull back within three, with the Huskies failing to get on the board until the 6:14 mark. At that point, Dangerfield hit a three and Nelson-Ododa followed it up with another basket to go up eight.
Memphis went on to pull within five and, with under three minutes to play, six, but the Tigers would get no closer. Baskets from Walker and Makurat, the latter giving the Huskies a 10-point lead with 1:33 left in the game, sealed the win for the Huskies.
The Tigers fell to 0-4 in conference play but had one of their better performances of the season. Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu notched a double-double (21 points, 10 rebounds), while Madison Griggs hit three three-pointers (12 points).
“They played aggressive, they played confident, their big kids were tough,” Auriemma said of Memphis. “They made shots they haven’t been making all year long, they made free throws they haven’t been making all year long. And our guys have to understand, that’s what happens when they play us. They may only play one good game this month, and it’s going to be against us. And tonight they played great.”
UConn will complete its road trip with a Thursday evening matchup against UCF at 6 p.m.
Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com
