Uconn’s Sales Rings Up 21 As No. 3 Huskies Thrash Irish

Nykesha Sales rolled her eyes, shook her head and put her fingers in her ears. Even after going 10 for 10 from the floor, she didn’t want to hear any talk of how good she is.

The preseason All-America scored 21 points Saturday as No. 3 Connecticut defeated Notre Dame 78-59 Saturday in the Huskies’ first road game of the year. UConn (8-0, 2-0 Big East) improved to 6-0 against the Irish (3-3, 0-2).

“Nykesha is the best player in the nation,” Irish coach Muffet McGraw said. “She played an outstanding game today. With her on the floor, they’re a different team and we just couldn’t handle her.”

Mollie Peirick, who missed most of the second half with a bloody nose, led the Irish with 13, and Niele Ivey added 11 off the bench. Stacy Hansmeyer added 13 points for UConn, and Svetlana Abrosimova and Amy Duran finished with 12 apiece.

But it was Sales who really gave Notre Dame rouble. She scored eight of her 10 first-half points in the opening four minutes, and then added four in UConn’s 9-0 run to open the second half that put the game away for good.

The Irish closed to 49-38 on Kari Hutchinson’s trey that she launched practically from the bench with 13:17 left, but Sales answered back with her own 3-pointer. Notre Dame wouldn’t threaten again.

After scoring five points in Tuesday’s victory over Villanova, Sales wasn’t worrying about what people think of her. She’s just happy to be out of her slump.

“I changed my attitude,” she said. “There was just something off coming into the last few games. I don’t know what it was, it just didn’t feel right.”

The rest of the Huskies could have said the same thing Saturday. Aside from Sales, UConn didn’t look particularly sharp. The Huskies turned the ball over a season-high 25 times but helped themselves by shooting 25 of 51 (49 percent) from the floor.

But it didn’t matter because the Irish aren’t anything close to the team that went 31-7 and made it to the Final Four last year. Notre Dame was outrebounded 45-35, shot just 22 of 61 (36 percent) from the floor and had 21 turnovers.

There were bad passes, fouls and shots that were nowhere close to the basket on both sides of the floor.

“They’re a young team. They’ll have a chance to grow and they’ll learn to be a great team,” McGraw said. “But in the end, it’s still a win for them. They’re undefeated and that’s what counts.”

It didn’t look like it was going to be ugly early, as Sales got UConn off to a quick 15-5 lead. But after Hansmeyer’s off-balance jumper put UConn ahead 31-14 with 9:43 left - its largest lead of the half - the Huskies fell apart as Sales, Hansmeyer and Paige Sauer got into foul trouble and headed for the bench.

“Notre Dame turned up their intensity and I think we took a step back,” Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. “Maybe I left them out there too long.”

UConn reserves didn’t score a field goal the rest of the first half, had trouble making their free throws and seemed flustered by Notre Dame’s quick, swarming defense.

Notre Dame jumped all over the inexperienced Huskies, scoring six straight points off UConn turnovers and cutting UConn’s lead to 35-30 by halftime. But McGraw downplayed the run, saying it was more about who UConn didn’t have on the floor than anything the Irish did.

“Our defense was bad,” she said. “We made our run because they didn’t have their good players.”