Georgetown May Muscle UConn

Even this late in the season, a good team understands there is time to learn and space to grow. That is the mindset No. 3 UConn is embracing.

“There are always points in every game that a coach pulls out and watches on film with the intent on getting better at it,” Geno Auriemma said.

Tuesday night in Louisville was a battle for the Huskies, emotionally and physically. The Cardinals took a big punch in the first half, falling behind by 21, before recoiling to move within six before UConn pulled away, 56-46.

“You realize that in March, this [kind of performance] isn’t going to be good enough,” Auriemma said. “But there will also come a time in March that we will play in a game like [Louisville]. And it will be good to have a reference point.

“But you need to be careful not to get caught playing the game the way the opponent wants to go. I come from Philadelphia and I remember when a [hockey] team came in to play the Flyers, you were going to play the way they wanted you to play and that was all there was to it. Sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. But when it happens, it is kind of disappointing.”

Cooler heads must prevail Saturday, because Georgetown is also a physical team which relies on its defensive intensity.

The No. 17 Hoyas (19-5, 8-3), who lost to UConn in the Sweet 16 last season in Philadelphia, have won four straight, all Big East games, including Wednesday’s over Seton Hall in Washington. They have allowed an average of only 48.8 points in those victories.

“We are playing hard and forcing teams into turnovers, and when we can keep the turnovers in-bounds it really helps us because our transition offense is really good,” Georgetown coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “And we’re rebounding well. But we just need to get back our shooting confidence. Unfortunately, it our losses this season, we haven’t been able to score.”

The Hoyas have been led again by guard Sugar Rodgers, who is averaging 19.9 points. But Tia McGee, so important defensively in last year’s run, has stepped up (11.8), too.

“She came into the season aware that Monica McNutt was gone,” Williams-Flournoy said. “[McGee] scored last year, but we really needed her to step up, become a bigger scorer. She can guard just about anyone on the floor, but we needed her to be a little more focused on offense because we know teams are going to concentrate on taking Rodgers out. She can not do it by herself, especially with all the attention she has received.”

Georgetown certainly has potential to mirror what Louisville pulled off. The Cardinals coaxed 20 fouls, 22 turnovers, won the rebounding battle (42-38) and nearly hosted a boxing match with 17:25 to play when Stefanie Dolson and Sheronne Vails battled over the ball.

“First of all, I’m a lady,’’ Dolson said. “I would not punch someone. I kind of lost my cool for a second when she was on me. I’ve just got to do a better job of keeping my head straight and not retaliating because normally it’s the person that retaliates that gets caught or called for a foul.’’

And so the Huskies (22-2, 10-1) returned to practice intent on using the experience to help discover new things about themselves as they prepare to play Georgetown Saturday at Gampel Pavilion.

“We don’t mind [the physical play],” Caroline Doty said. “We fight every day in practice against our practice players. We’ve just got to be more composed.’’

Until Tuesday, UConn had been averaging 13.2 fouls and yet they had 13 in just the second half. Tiffany Hayes fouled out and Doty and Kelly Faris had four fouls each, including three called on Faris in the first six minutes of the second half.

“I don’t think we lost control,’’  Dolson said. “I think we just kind of lost our heads a little bit. … This will give us an opportunity to see what we are doing wrong, particularly with our shot selection.”

Doty and Dolson were both disappointed in the manner UConn behaved and performed.

“It was a kind of a disappointment,” said Doty, who scored 15 points in a season-high 35 points. “We kind of exposed ourselves. …Turning the ball over the way we did was unacceptable and we have to fix that.

“We understand that tournament time is coming up and that teams aren’t going to start backing down,” said Doty, who was rested in practice this week to help her aching left knee. “We have to keep fighting them and playing as hard as we can.

“It’s February now. It’s [playing like they did at Louisville] is something teams do at the beginning of the season. The good thing is that we hopefully were able to get it out of our system and were able to watch the film of it on Thursday, see what we needed to get better at and hopefully it won’t happen again.”