Huskies Aim To Clip Eagles' Wings

They may not have a lot of history between them, but the No. 1 women's basketball team and Marquette will face each other tonight at the XL Center at 7 p.m. in a game that head coach Geno Auriemma said will be a test for the team.

The Huskies (24-1, 11-1 Big East) once again returned to the top of the AP poll after defeating Georgetown last week, 80-48, and then-No. 18 Pittsburgh, 90-64. But the team is not looking past the upcoming games to what could be in its postseason future.

"That's been our goal all season, to finally one, just get UConn back on top," said Mel Thomas. "I think for a couple years, people didn't view UConn as the powerhouse they used to and I think we're finally starting to get back in that direction. And with that comes Final Four, national championship, so we're moving in the right direction."

The Huskies have gone 2-0 against the Golden Eagles since Marquette joined the conference, most recently winning by a score of 52-48 in Milwaukee, Wisc. last February. And though the Golden Eagles sit at a 14-11 record, they have battled it out with some of the top teams in the country this season, defeating then-No. 23 DePaul at home 65-56 and falling just short last month against then-No. 5 Rutgers, 65-61. Yet they sit ninth in the Big East with a .500 conference record (6-6), after recent losses to Notre Dame and Syracuse.

That does not mean that UConn is counting Marquette out.

UConn's defense has made sure not to let its opponents rack up the points, especially no one individual since Rutgers' Epiphany Prince's 33-point performance in the team's only loss of the season. Her performance, according to Auriemma, showed his team the consequences of what follows if the players don't do what they're supposed to do.

"What's hard is that if you go into a game and there's a kid that's averaging 25 a game, you let them get 30, then you feel like 'Man, we were lousy,'" he said. "You know, you go out and a kid is averaging 12, 14, 15 and they get 30-something, I don't know how you feel 'cause it's just like 'what happened?'"

And the team has moved forward from what Charde Houston called "a slap in the face."

"We definitely learned a lot," Houston said. "We learned that we can't allow a player to get that many points in the second half without someone actually wanting to stop her … It's a test not only for the person that's guarding her [Krystal Ellis], but for the team as a whole because there's going to be times when the person that's guarding her makes mistakes and gets beat, but it's about how we cover up those mistakes."

Kaili McLaren agreed, saying that the team does focus on shutting its opponents down in games and practices.

"We work on a lot of defense … we knew that we had to go out, play hard and make sure we kept them off the boards," she said of the game against the Panthers.

As for her personal contributions that she said she needs to make in the closing games of the regular season: "Just rebound, score when needed and just play good defense."

Houston also has a particular focus in mind as her collegiate career gets closer to the end.

"Right now, I'm keeping my eye's on the prize and I'm doing everything from this point on to make sure that we get as far as we can," Houston said. "From this point on, you know, I can't change what's happened in the past but I do know that I have possibly 13 games just to take it one game at a time and end my career as best as possible."

Contact Brittany Perotti at

Brittany.Perotti@UConn.edu.