Thomas Lights Up At The Garden

By: Kevin Meacham

Posted: 1/22/07

NEW YORK - Following Sunday's victory, Geno Auriemma said that if a player "can't shoot in Madison Square Garden, they can't shoot anywhere."

Rest assured, Mel Thomas can shoot anywhere. Thomas scored a game-high 19 points, including five 3-pointers in the first half, and No. 6 UConn pummeled St. John's, 84-63, in front of an announced crowd of 11,716 at the Garden.

"That's typical Mel," Auriemma said. "Once those couple of shots go in, that changes the whole complexion of the game. As long as they're staying in the zone, I wouldn't take Mel out."

Thomas' sharpshooting came as a result of wide-open looks against the Red Storm's 2-3 zone, and her back-to-back-to-back treys turned a 7-6 lead into a 16-8 lead just over five minutes into the game. The Huskies (16-2, 6-0 Big East) never looked back, expanding the lead to 19 at one point in the first half.

"Whenever I see Mel open, I want to try to find her," said point guard Renee Montgomery. "I feel like her shot has a great chance to go in every time."

"We fell asleep for a few possessions," said St. John's coach Kim Barnes-Arico. "She's so good, if you don't key on her on every possession, she'll kill you with a three. Any time we had a lapse, she took advantage."

Thomas' success - 5-for-10 in the first half - opened up holes for everyone else. As a result, four Huskies finished in double figures, including Montgomery with 15, Tina Charles with 15 and Kalana Greene with 14. As a team, UConn shot over 50 percent, though they shot just 33 percent from beyond the 3-point line.

By the time the Huskies finished a 9-0 run to open the second half, most of the crowd, very much pro-UConn at the start of the game, had headed for the exits. Those that stayed gave a standing ovation to Charles, a Jamaica, N.Y. native, for her efforts.

"I just had fun today," said Charles, who played on the Garden floor at Christ the King High School. "I'm glad all of my teammates had the opportunity to play."

The Huskies wore down the shallow bench of the Red Storm (6-12, 1-5) methodically, but there were times where Auriemma thought he saw a lack of killer instinct.

"I'm disappointed that we weren't able to sustain for 40 minutes," Auriemma said. "The last six or seven minutes of the first half we were careless and sloppy. For 25 minutes, I thought we looked like a really good team. For 15 minutes, we had trouble guarding them. It was a different energy level and a different mindset once we got a lead."

"Sometimes we just play a little too relaxed if we get a big lead," Thomas said. "We let them hang around. I was surprised I didn't knock down as many shots as I could, but they all felt good."

In one instance, the Red Storm clawed within 11 late in the first half, an 8-0 run thanks in part to UConn turnovers. That run was snuffed out when Brittany Hunter scored on a layup and was fouled, raising the lead to 13 at halftime.

Still, outside of Thomas, who missed her final four field goals, the team made 17 of its 22 attempts in the second half.

"We have to take the good and the bad from the game," Montgomery said. "We have to take something from both sides of it."

Despite being undersized, St. John's hung with UConn on the boards, as the Huskies only managed a 40-36 advantage. Charde Houston added a game-high nine, while Kaili McLaren and Charles provided six each.

Three St. John's players scored in double digits, led by Kia Wright with 19 and Monique McLean with 17.

The game was the nightcap in a St. John's men-women doubleheader at Madison Square Garden. In the opener, the St. John's men defeated Syracuse, 64-60.