"It was a great day in Memphis today," are not words one might expect to hear out of head University of Memphis women's basketball coach Melissa McFerrin's mouth after her team was pummeled 90-49 at the FedExForum on Jan. 4, by the No. 1 ranked University of Connecticut, yet they were her first words when she stepped to the podium.
Perhaps this was because the defeat wasn't delivered by the hands of an average opponent but by the UConn Huskies (18-0, 5-0 American), who have dominated the past decade of women's college basketball.
The same Huskies that won their first 14 games of the season by 17 points or more and made six consecutive trips to the Final Four, winning the championship in three of those years.
McFerrin thought the crowd of 6,783 got their money's worth, despite the loss.
"One of the things that I really liked about today is the city of Memphis seldom sees a display of basketball like that, and it doesn't matter if it's men, women or NBA," McFerrin said.
Despite being heavy underdogs, Memphis (9-8, 2-3 American) went toe-to-toe with the Huskies in the game's opening minutes, shooting hot out of the gate and taking a 13-10 lead into the first media timeout.
"I think any time you're facing a difficult opponent one of the things that makes everybody breathe a little bit easier is when the ball goes through the hoop early," McFerrin said. "There's nothing that makes a team get tighter quicker than 'Oh my goodness, the ball's not going through the hoop.'"
However, the shots soon stopped falling, and a monster UConn run put the Tigers in a 50-23 hole at halftime.
Memphis refused to quit in the second half, going on small runs, but the deficit proved too much to overcome.
Sophomore guard Ariel Hearn connected on five three-pointers and led the Tigers with 20 points, but had a fairly inefficient outing, converting on just seven of her 22 shot attempts. Senior Pa'Sonna Hope added 11 points and nine rebounds, while freshman Taylor Williams scored seven points in her first career start but struggled shooting the ball.
For UConn, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis led the way with 21 points off five 3-pointers. Last year's Final Four Most Outstanding Player Breanna Stewart totaled 17 points and eight rebounds and center Stefanie Dolson notched a 12-point 10-rebound double-double.
The crowd impressed head Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, and he thought it benefitted both programs.
"This is the first time that a lot of these people who may be UConn fans or may not be UConn fans have ever seen us in person, and it works both ways," Auriemma said. "We probably made some new fans tonight and Memphis probably made a few fans tonight. People in the stands that saw (Memphis) play said 'Hey! They're pretty good! I might come back.' Certainly Memphis can make like a 10-minute highlight film and show how many times they kicked our butt and looked pretty good."
While the UConn loss is one that Memphis fans likely expected, it adds to what has been a rocky start to conference play.
The Huskies dropped the Tigers to 0-2 in conference play, then an 80-75 road loss to Southern Methodist in double overtime buried the Tigers in an even deeper hole.
With their conference record sitting at 0-3 Memphis traveled to Orlando for a game against Central Florida. The Tigers needed a win after the three-game losing streak to start conference play, and they responded with an 88-52 victory, finally erasing the zero in the conference win column.
The blowout win gave the Blue and Gray a boost of momentum as they entered a contest against a scorching hot No. 23 ranked Rutgers team who came into the Jan. 14 matchup at Elma Roane Fieldhouse holding a 13-2 record and a nine-game winning streak.
The Tigers found themselves in a nine-point hole at halftime but rallied behind double-doubles from Hope and sophomore forward Asianna Fuqua-Bey to pull off a 74-73 overtime upset.
The win marked the program's first win over a top-25 opponent in over 10 years.
The Tigers will have an opportunity to extend their win streak Saturday afternoon when the Houston Cougars visit Elma Roane Fieldhouse. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.
