Albany Regional Final Game Breakdown
#1 Connecticut vs. #7 Dayton (Albany, New York)
Leaving Storrs did not slow down Connecticut at all. In the Sweet Sixteen against fifth seeded Texas, the Huskies cruised to an easy 105-54 victory. Breanna Stewart scored 31 points and added 12 rebounds and 7 assists. All five starters finished in double figures in the scoring column. Texas was simply outplayed and could not knock down nearly enough shots to keep it close. Morgan Tuck, who was pacing the Huskies in the first two rounds, scored 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting. That just goes to show how many weapons this team has. Stewart and Jefferson were getting most of the shots against the Longhorns and they certainly took advantage.
Dayton looked very good against a tough Iowa State team in the first round. Ally Malott scored 18 and grabbed a dozen rebounds, while fellow superstar Andrea Hoover scored a team high 20 points. In their 99-94 upset win over #2 Kentucky in the second round, Malott scored 28 points and reserve guard Amber Deane added 23. The Flyers kept their upsets coming against #3 Louisville. After a close first half, the Flyers pulled away in the second stanza to win 82-66. Hoover was the star this time around, scoring 26 points. Dayton is the first #7 seed to reach the regional finals since 2007.
Usually finding a way to contain either Malott or Hoover is a good way to beat Dayton. However, that has not worked for either Kentucky or Louisville. Hoover was held to just five points on 1-of-4 shooting against Kentucky and Malott scored just nine points against Louisville. So that has proven to not really matter thanks to Dayton’s roleplayers stepping up, but it is hard to imagine the Flyers pulling off the massive upset against Connecticut without both Malott and Hoover having big games in the scoring department. The Flyers will also need players like Amber Deane knocking down shots. More importantly perhaps, Dayton has to contain Connecticut and all of their scorers. This is a decent defensive team, but they have not seen an offense like Connecticut’s all season long. This will be a high scoring game, but it remains to be seen if Dayton can keep up.
