STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- Kennitra Johnson spent the early part of
the season in Geno Auriemma's doghouse. On Saturday night, the
reserve guard gave her coach something to smile about.
Johnson scored 16 points and hit 3-of-6 3-pointers as No. 1
Connecticut cruised to a 104-49 victory over Providence.
|  | | Swin Cash, right, had six points, the fewest of any UConn starter. But the Huskies' bench chipped in 10 times that total in a 55-point rout of Providence. |
"K.J. was unbelievably good," Auriemma said. "When she's
shooting the ball well from the 3-point line she's almost
impossible to defend, because as soon as you come out on her she
gets right in the lane and then finds the right person more often
than not."
Auriemma sat Johnson the first two games of the season for not
meeting the team's preseason physical and academic goals.
She's worked her way back into Auriemma's very deep rotation and
on Saturday turned in one of her best efforts.
"If we keep K.J. playing at this level, we're automatically a
much, much better team," he said.
Johnson said it wasn't hard to pick up her game when the team
was firing on all cylinders like it was against the Friars.
"You get the energy from the team and when you come in, you
just feel it," Johnson said.
The UConn starters overpowered the Friars in the opening
minutes. Johnson and the rest of the reserves continued to bury
them. UConn (13-0, 4-0 Big East) got 60 points from the backups.
"They're such an awesome team and we're so not ready to play at
this level," Providence coach Jim Jabir said.
Jabir's team was coming off an overtime loss to No. 13 Reuters,
and had little fight left for the Huskies.
Connecticut freshman Diana Taurasi scored 16 points and keyed an
early 28-0 that put the game away.
Svetlana Abrosimova led a smothering defense with seven of the
Huskies' 22 steals. She also had a team-high eight assists.
Asjha Jones started off Connecticut's big burst with a quick
basket off an inbounds pass 3:47 into the game. Taurasi had eight
points in the run, including consecutive 3-pointers.
Providence (6-7, 0-4) was held scoreless for nearly eight
minutes in the first half and shot just 27 percent in the game.
The Huskies dominated every facet of the game. UConn was too
strong inside, too fast outside and too deep all game. Reserve
Tamika Williams had a team-high nine rebounds and also added 14
points.
Taurasi was 4-for-6 on 3-pointers.
UConn outscored the Friars 58-20 in the paint and had 39 points
off 27 Friar turnovers.
"When Asjha, Tamika, Diana came off the bench there was a
tremendous impact and that's what I want to see," Auriemma said.
The addition of Johnson, he said, give UConn four solid
offensive players that comprise the first wave of substitution. He
said that makes it tough on the opponents who just spent the
opening five minutes trying to defend the starters.
"Not only are they coming in already having a sense of what's
going on out there, but they're coming in playing against kids that
are already a little bit winded," Auriemma said.
Kristin Quinn led Providence with nine points. Jen Gombotz,
averaging a team-leading 13.4 points coming into the game, was held
scoreless.
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