NEW YORK – Tina Charles had 29 points and 18 rebounds to help top-ranked Connecticut beat Penn State 77-63 on Sunday in the second game of the Maggie Dixon Classic at Madison Square Garden.
UConn (7-0) had been on an 11-day break for exams since beating Holy Cross on Dec. 3. The rust showed as Connecticut was sloppy in the early going. The Huskies came into the game scoring 92.8 points and shooting 60 percent from the field. They looked out of synch for the first 11 minutes of the game that drew a crowd of 9,417.
Trailing 19-18 with 9 minutes left in the half, UConn went on a 16-2 run to close the period. Moore started the spurt with a steal that led to a basket by Renee Montgomery. Moore also added seven points during the run. Charles finished the half with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Tyra Grant scored 26 for Penn State (5-5).
Maya Moore added 21 points and Renee Montgomery had 13 for the Huskies, who will head to Cancun to play in the Caribbean Classic this week.
Mashea Williams scored 17 and Brianne O'Rourke added 13 for the Nittany Lions, who open up Big Ten play next Sunday against Michigan State.
Fourteenth-ranked Rutgers beat Army 59-38 in the first game of the doubleheader in honor of the former Army coach. Dixon died April 6, 2006, of arrhythmia, probably caused by an enlarged heart. Her death came three weeks after her first season as Army's coach, a performance that won the admiration of the academy and all of college basketball.
Connecticut struggled to put away Penn State. The Huskies extended their lead to 58-42 on Kalana Greene's free throws with 10:24 left in the game, but the Nittany Lions answered with a 7-0 run capped by O'Rourke's 3-pointer to make it 58-49. Penn State could get no closer than eight the rest of the game as Charles came up with key baskets and rebounds down the stretch.
UConn finished the game shooting just 38 percent from the field, including going only 7-for-30 from behind the arc. The Huskies entered the game hitting 44 percent of their 3-pointers.
Caroline Doty missed her first 3-pointer 40 seconds into the game. The UConn freshman had made her previous 10, falling four short of the NCAA record set by Portland's Deanna Lansing in 1996 and matched by Lauren Howell of Mount St. Mary's last season.
A portion of the proceeds from the games will go to C.A.R.E (Cardiac Arrhythmias Research and Education Foundation, Inc.). C.A.R.E. offered free heart screening for anyone attending the Classic.
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