Huskies cruise into semifinals
Muhl, team defense fueled win over St. John’s. They’ll need that to continue to advance far in the postseason.
Behind a strong defense and a team-leading 17 points from Paige Bueckers, right, and 14 from Christyn Williams, the topranked and top-seeded UConn women's basketball team defeats St. John's 77-41 to advance to Sunday's Big East Tournament semifinals against Villanova. Villanova beat DePaul 78-72 in overtime.
UNCASVILLE — Top-ranked and top-seeded UConn was up by seven with three minutes left in the first quarter of Saturday’s Big East Tournament quarterfinal when Nika Muhl started to do her thing. The freshman guard from Croatia was defending a St. John’s player on the wing when she blew up a hand-off attempt, coming away with the ball and and scoring a breakaway layup on the other end.
On St. John’s next possession a mere seconds later, it was Muhl again — this time, bullying the St. John’s ball-handler, poking the ball away and jostling her for it before the officials called a Red Storm foul.
That gritty play from Muhl set the tone early for UConn’s defense in its first postseason game of the 2020-21 season, a 77-41 win over St. John’s Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena. And though Muhl would exit the contest with an ankle sprain early in the third, the defensive unit got the job done in her absence — a positive sign for the championship-minded Huskies.
Up next for UConn is a semifinal meeting with No. 5 seed Villanova, which beat No. 4 DePaul 78-72 in overtime, Sunday at 3 p.m.
“Sometimes, you have players that are players of the game,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Today especially, I think it was our team. Our team defense was exceptional.”
The Huskies’ defense has come a long way since it allowed Arkansas to score 90 points at the end of January. This week has been an example of that, as it was the defense that carried UConn over Marquette in a 63-53 slog Monday to close out the regular season undefeated in Big East play.
It was more of the same against St. John’s
Saturday, the Huskies particularly excelling with their ball pressure, forcing multiple shot clock violations and containing Leilani Correa, St. John’s top scorer. Correa, who previously put up 33 against the Huskies in early February, entered the meeting averaging 18.1 points, but scored only seven on 3-for-18 shooting at Mohegan Sun.
By the end of the first quarter, UConn jumped ahead 18-6. Before too long, the score was 34-10, then 38-15 by the half. UConn had four steals in each of the first two quarters — more than the amount of field goals St. John’s made in each of those periods (three).
With UConn’s reserves playing most of the second half, the Red Storm managed just 26 points. They’d finish with six more turnovers (21) than made field goals (15), allowing UConn to have a 32-4 edge in points off turnovers.
“We didn’t do a great job running offense, but they did a great job taking us out of what we wanted to do,” St. John’s coach Joe Tartamella said.
“Starting from the jump and setting the tone for the rest of the tournament and for the rest of March for us, we wanted to key in on defense first,” freshman guard Paige Bueckers said.
UConn’s defense is crucial not just for the sake of keeping an opponent off the board. The Huskies thrive when they get their transition game going, something Marquette did a fantastic job of limiting Monday night (UConn only scored two fast-break points that game).
Auriemma thought his defense did a better job of forcing live-ball turnovers Saturday, allowing the Huskies to get out and run.
And run they did. Forty percent of UConn’s scoring came from fastbreak points. That helped mask some of the Huskies’ struggles in the half court (they only shot 45
percent, had a mere 11 assists and went 2-for-16 on 3s).
“We wanted to get into our transition offense as much as possible and get our pace up and run teams like that from the beginning,” junior forward Olivia NelsonOdoda said. “That’s been a focus for us especially from the coaches.”
“Our half-court offense is never going to be great. It’s not going to be like you’re used to seeing from years ago. We have too many players that are new to this,” Auriemma said. “Sometimes it’s going to be good, sometimes not so good. But if our defense can create some transition baskets and second shots, which I thought that first half, Aaliyah [Edwards] and [NelsonOdoda] picked up right where they left off on Monday night against Marquette [that’d be good].”
UConn’s defense has thrived with the emergence of Muhl, who has started the last 11 games for the Huskies and whose toughness and tenacious play set her apart. Muhl’s third-quarter ankle injury didn’t look great — she needed to be helped off the floor by UConn’s trainer and Bueckers, and after being treated in the training room returned to the bench on crutches. Auriemma and her teammates were optimistic that Muhl will tough it out and make her way back as long as it isn’t serious.
The Huskies certainly hope that Muhl can return soon, if not this weekend then for the NCAA Tournament. She’s a big part of what makes their defense go, not just Saturday but most days, and could be an underappreciated key for UConn to make a deep postseason run.
“She just brought a certain edge, certain aggressiveness we needed to start off with, just coming in impacting the game especially on the defensive end with her steals and ball pressure,” Nelson-Ododa said. “That’s something we need to continue especially in this tournament and moving on more importantly into March.”