teams spend thanksgiving at cancun, virgin islands

This wasn't how the Purdue women's basketball team wanted to spend its Thanksgiving.

The Boilermakers were setting their sights on leaving the chilly Midwest and getting a chance to enjoy some nice weather and play basketball in Cancun.

But an illness by one of the players, junior Drey Mingo, put a dent to those plans. Mingo was hospitalized in serious but stable condition with meningitis, forcing Purdue to cancel its two games against Montana and Florida Gulf Coast in the Caribbean Challenge at Cancun.

"I'm not concerned about anything but Drey and our basketball team," Purdue coach Sharon Versyp said in the Lafayette (Ind.) Journal and Courier on Wednesday. "Basketball does not matter. It just brings us together."

So the Purdue team spent its Thanksgiving back in Indiana. The Boilermakers will get back in action on Thursday, when they play Maryland in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at home.

The 6-foot-2 Mingo is playing in her first full season with Purdue after sitting out last season due to NCAA transferred rules. She transferred to Purdue a year ago after playing a year at Maryland.

Mingo has been a valuable player for the Boilermakers in the early weeks of the basketball season. She averaged 17.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in four games and helped Purdue get off to a 4-0 start. The Boilermakers won the Preseason WNIT last week, and Mingo was named to the all-tournament team.

While Mingo and the Boilermakers stayed home on Turkey Day, a total of 16 teams got to play games in the Caribbean Challenge and in the Paradise Jam at the Virgin Islands.

Even though Purdue took the day off, the Big Ten still turned in a strong showing on Thanksgiving, going 2-0. Iowa and Penn State won their opening games in the Caribbean Challenge on Thursday.

The Hawkeyes (6-0) came back from a 10-point, second-half deficit to beat James Madison 67-61. Iowa senior Kachine Alexander made eight of her nine free throws and finished with 18 points.

James Madison senior Dawn Evans was the highest scorer on Thanksgiving, finishing with 32 points with five 3-pointers. She boosted her season-scoring average to 27.3 points per game after four games.

After beating Utah 70-58, Penn State improved to 5-0, its best start in 14 years. Penn State junior Nikki Greene was one of three players who finished with a double-double on Thursday. She scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

The other two players who scored a double-double on Thanksgiving were from West Virginia. Seniors Liz Repella finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds and senior Madina Ali finished with 16 poins and 10 rebounds to lead the No. 10 Mountaineers (4-0) to a 62-49 win over No. 21 TCU in the opening game of the Paradise Jam. It was the only contest on Thursday with two ranked teams.

West Virginia wasn't the only Big East team that won on Turkey Day. No. 12 Georgetown got 24 points from senior Monica McNutt as it beat Georgia Tech 67-58 in the Paradise Jam. The Hoyas are 4-0.

Iowa State also improved to 4-0 on Thursday after beating Virginia 66-48 in the Paradise Jam. Kelsey Bolte, the Cyclones' lone senior, scored 15 points with three 3-pointers off the bench and became the program's seventh player to make 200 career treys. Bolte has 201 career 3-pointers.

Thanksgiving wasn't a good day for the ACC as it went 0-3. Besides Virginia and Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech also lost on Thursday. The Hokies lost to Florida Gulf Coast 73-65 in the Caribbean Challenge.

Missouri and Hartford finished in a tie for the lowest point total on Turkey Day with 44 points. Missouri lost to fourth-ranked Tennessee 82-44 in the Paradise Jam and Hartford lost 78-44 to Wisconsin-Green Bay in the Caribbean Challenge.

moore looks for more this season for huskies

After seeing Maya Moore score 20 points in the first half of the Connecticut-Baylor game on Tuesday, Geno Auriemma delivered a message to his team at halftime.

"They can stop watching Maya and get involved," the UConn coach said.

Well, the Huskies have to keep watching Moore and don't get involved. After March, women's basketball fans will not see Moore in a UConn uniform any more.

So in order to win its third consecutive championship and extend its long winning streak, UConn must continue to give Moore the ball more. So far, Moore is helping UConn get off to a 2-0 start and she has averaged 25.5 points in the two games.

Moore's college basketball career is coming to a close this winter. She's setting her sights on accomplishing the same thing UConn graduates Rebecco Lobo, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Tina Charles did -- end a career with a national championship.

Moore is also one of numerous seniors who also want to end their college basketball careers on top. North Carolina's Jessica Breland (she missed all of last year while receiving treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma), Iowa's Kachine Alexander, Xavier's Amber Harris and Ta'Shia Phillips, Tennessee's Angie Bjorklund, Kentucky's Victoria Dunlap, Ohio State's Jantel Lavender, Oklahoma's Danielle Robinson and Duke's Jasmine Thomas are among the others.

Moore already played for two national championship teams. She helped UConn beat Stanford in the 2010 national title game in San Antonio and Louisville in the 2009 championship game in St. Louis.

But Moore is still looking more this winter. In order to celebrate another national title, she has to do it with five freshmen, two sophomores and one junior on the UConn roster. Senior Lorin Dixon is the other senior on the team.

Moore also hopes that she doesn't celebrate her senior year with a loss. The last time she experienced a loss was at the end of her freshman year, when UConn lost to Stanford in the semifinals of the Final Four in Tampa, Fla.

With the 65-64 win over Baylor on Tuesday, the Huskies improved to 2-0 and extended their winning streak to 80 games. UConn is eight wins away from matching the record 88-game winning streak set by the UCLA men's squad.

But Tuesday's victory wasn't easy. The Huskies came back from an eight-point deficit in the second half and had two of their players foul out down the stretch.

"I was speechless," Moore said in the University of Connecticut's Daily Campus on Wednesday. "I was just proud of the way my teammates responded, that was a really big moment for us. I thought we responded to the test and we did just enough to get it."

Moore finished with 30 points against Baylor, bumping her career point total to 2,219, which ranks her third on the UConn all-time scoring list. The three-time All-American scored 21 points against Holy Cross in the Huskies' season opener on Sunday.

Connecticut has been ranked No. 1 for 45 straight weeks. Baylor was the first ranked team the Huskies played this year. UConn will play three more ranked teams before the New Year arrives -- Ohio State (Dec. 19), Florida State (Dec. 21) and Stanford (Dec. 30).

The Huskies are looking for another national championship to add to their already growing trophy case. UConn can tie Tennessee for the most national championships in women's basketball with eight if it wins it all again this year at Indianapolis.

That would be a great way to put an end to a great basketball career like Moore's.