Hayes scores career-high 23 off bench in win

When Tiffany Hayes started her freshman season at UConn in October, she was one of the guards who came off the bench in place of starter Caroline Doty.

That changed with an ACL injury to Doty that left her sidelined for the rest of the season. Lorin Dixon, who was often lost in the shuffle of the media's attention to Maya Moore last season, became the starter.

On Monday evening, as she entered Gampel Pavilion prepared to face No. 6 Louisville, she was averaging 6.6 points per game.

By game time, it was Hayes' time to shine.

Few people may have predicted it, though.

"I said this afternoon, I think to Rebecca [Lobo], that we need to get 25 great minutes out of Tiffany Hayes tonight," said coach Geno Auriemma. "The question was: what constitutes great minutes?"

She had scored 10 points in the last three games combined and had gone 1-for her last-24 in 3-point attempts.

It was no wonder why the Cardinals' game plan was to leave her open and force her to hit shots from the perimeter.

Monday night, watching Hayes play, no one would have guessed that she had struggled. In fact, it was a career night. Last year's Miss Florida Basketball and McDonald's All-American dropped six 3's and 23 points in the women's basketball team's 93-65 victory in front of 9,428 of fans at Gampel Pavilion.

"She just got hot," said Louisville forward Angel McCoughtry. "That was the game plan and she made 'em. That was a chance we took."

Hayes' family sat in the stands, watching it all unfold.

She entered the game quietly, but made her presence known almost immediately, hitting a 3 within 1:30 of subbing in for Dixon. It was a shot Auriemma said she had told him that she did not want to take.

It was also the shot that she said told her that she had the right touch that night.

"They're UConn, they're No. 1," said Louisville forward Candyce Bingham. "They had somebody step up and she stepped up."

By halftime, Hayes had 10 points.

In the second half, Hayes became an integral part of breaking open the lead. In fact, within a one-minute span, Hayes padded the Huskies' lead and hit three straight 3's.

"You see me smiling right now," Moore said. "I'm so proud of her, how she just came out and was smart, did her best to fight around screens, and just being aggressive."

"Angel [McCoughtry] has a way of drawing fouls on you so she got up to four fouls," Moore said, "but just to be able to do that on the defensive end, come out with that energy; and to come on the offensive end and also contribute, I think, just speaks to her game."

When Hayes left the game that night, she was greeted with a handshake and a smile from Auriemma.

After the crowd cleared out with the sound of the buzzer, Hayes was grabbed by ESPN for a post-game interview. If the fans did not know her name before the game, the whole crowd knew now.

As did Louisville.

"I hope the kid is the player of the week in the Big East 'cause that's what I told our kids," said Louisville coach Jeff Walz. "We're going to make someone else score. She hit three of those free 3's and they were deep. It's not like she was standing on the 3-point line. They were three or four feet past the men's 3-point line. So that's just a chance you take and I was going to make the kid shoot 'em, and she did, which is more power to her."

After all was said and done, though, her two biggest fans - her mother and brother - made their way down to the floor to give her a hug.

As for Hayes, she was humble in the face of everything she did, uttering few words.

Still, the look on her face during and after the game said it all.

Yes, she had a career night.