UConn women roll
Christyn Williams leads No. 1 Huskies to road rout of Xavier.
Another conference game, another rout for the UConn women with the Huskies once more showing up in top form as March rapidly approaches.
Top-ranked UConn demolished Xavier, 83-32, Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati, its third straight road victory with two more on tap. With the win, the Huskies (18-1, 15-0) clinched a share of the Big East regular-season title, with Marquette (15-4, 12-3) being the only team that could catch them.
For the second straight game, UConn got it done in every phase. The Huskies’ defense limited Xavier to a season-low in scoring and tying the second-lowest point total UConn has allowed all season. Only UMass Lowell (23) scored fewer. On the other end, UConn had four players in double figures and assists on 26 of its 32 field goals.
“Right now we’re just trying to stay in a good mental place,” said junior Christyn Williams, who led the way with 22 points on 9-of16 shooting (2 of 5 on 3s). “Obviously, we have a lot of work to do defensively and offensively, just to sharpen up things. But I feel like we’re in a good spot and we’re constantly growing as the games go on.”
It was the third consecutive game that Williams led UConn in scoring following her 19 points against Georgetown and 21 against St. John’s. Going into the fourth quarter, she had as many points as Xavier’s entire team.
“These last couple games especially, I think the defensive rhythm
that she’s in, the defensive assignments that she’s had and how hard she’s worked on that end of the floor have carried over to the offensive end,” Auriemma said. “She’s playing at a real high level right now, at the perfect time.”
Another strong defensive outing for the Huskies also allowed them to get their transition game going, as they scored 27 points on the break.
Freshman point guard Paige Bueckers rolled her right ankle — the same one she injured in the fourth quarter of the Tennessee game — early in the first quarter, exiting the game briefly before coming back in and immediately draining a three.
“She gave me the impression that it was just one of those things and it just felt funny,” Auriemma said. “Paige has a pretty high pain tolerance and she wants to play. In this case, she said it was no big deal. If it was a real problem, obviously, she wouldn’t have been able to play, but it was nothing.”
Bueckers would finish the half with 11 points and four assists, but was scoreless in the second half. It was the first time since the Tennessee game that Bueckers scored fewer than 19 points and shot below 50 percent from the field. But her low output didn’t matter with the likes of Williams, freshman Aaliyah Edwards (16 points, 11 rebounds for first career double-double), junior Olivia Nelson-Ododa (11 points) and redshirt junior Evina Westbrook (eight) stepping up.
“It’s imperative everybody gets involved in the offensive flow of our game. For the longest time, it was just Paige,” Auriemma said. “The more players we have other than Paige that make shots and are in a good flow, a good rhythm and they feel good, the less shots Paige is going to have to take, and she can shoot the ball when she wants to, not because she has to so many times because we’re struggling offensively. That’s the way Paige wants to play.
“She probably missed more shots [she shot 4 of 11[inlinenote] Saturday] than she had because she’s been on like a super-human streak since this season started. But maybe it’s unrealistic to think that it’s going to be like that. Some days the ball just doesn’t go in.”
UConn jumped out to a 26-6 lead by the end of the first before slowing down for much of the second period. But the Huskies used an 11-2 run to close the half ahead 42-13, with assists on 15 of their 18 field goals and forcing nearly double as many Xavier turnovers (11) as the Musketeers’ made shots (six). Nineteen of UConn’s first-half points were off of turnovers.
Williams scored 11 points of her points the third quarter to help UConn bump its lead into the 40s. The fourth quarter was the only one where Xavier managed double-figure scoring.
UConn doesn’t play again until Thursday, the first of three games in a five-day stretch to close the regular season.
“We’re playing a little bit differently than we were earlier. Defensively, we’re a little bit better. Offensively, it’s a little bit better flow,” Auriemma said. “Maintaining that is not always the easiest thing. But we have a couple of days to rest... then we’ll see if we can maintain it for another week.”
Note
Auriemma did not have an update on sophomore Anna Makurat, who has been out since the Georgetown game on Jan. 23 with a lower leg issue, but did say Saturday that, “If we can get her back for the Big East Tournament, that’d be great.”