Freshman Shade comes up big
Scores career-high 26 points in first Tournament game
STORRS — Coach Geno Auriemma described the attitude of the UConn freshmen before they played in their first NCAA Tournament game Friday as ranging from “The NCAA Tournament, what's that?” to “Delusional, I can win a national championship by myself.
“It'll be interesting to see which one of them shows up,” he added.
The most prominent of the three Saturday was Ashlynn Shade, who scored a career-high 26 points in her NCAA Tournament debut, an 86-64 victory over Jackson State in front of a sellout crowd at Gampel Pavilion.
“It was definitely really exciting,” said Shade, who shot 10-for19 from the field, 5-for-11 from the 3-point line and had six rebounds and two steals. “I had a lot of nerves and an anxious feeling before the game, like when I went to bed, when I woke up.
“But when I stepped out on the court and during the starting lineup, you could hear how loud the crowd was and I felt like it was a dream.”
Shade wore a T-shirt after the game, as did all the UConn players, with a picture of Auriemma on the front in honor of his 70th birthday Saturday. Her shirt depicted a younger Geno yelling.
“I think this shirt sums up Coach's relationship with me,” Shade deadpanned. “Like most of the time. But when he yells at me, I'm starting to translate it into ‘I love you' instead of ‘You suck.'”
Auriemma called Shade “magnificent,” along with Paige Bueckers and Aaliyah Edwards, who all scored 20-plus points for the Huskies.
“We always need one more player to step up, and if it's a couple players then it's obviously a big, big, big win for us,” he said. “But Ash, what she does is she scores points. She's comfortable. I was really worried that they (the freshmen) put a lot of pressure on themselves and it didn't backfire on them, so that was huge.”
He also said Friday he expected the seniors to lead the way and if the freshmen contributed, great, but it was unfair to expect the youngsters to pick it up if the seniors were struggling.
That was not the case at all Saturday.
“I'm proud of (Shade),” Edwards said. “I think she's going to stay confident and carry this into Monday. Ultimately it starts with the seniors setting the tone on both ends of the court and then I think the freshmen seize any opportunity they can and Ashlynn did that today.”
Shade said she was just taking what the defense gave her and the defense was focused on Bueckers and Edwards.
“I'm most comfortable out there because of our seniors,” Shade said. “We have such great leaders. They put us in positions to succeed. I wouldn't have gotten those open shots if it wasn't for Paige drawing so much attention and Aaliyah drawing so much attention. All credit is due to them.”
KK Arnold, the other freshman starter, was also nervous before her first NCAA Tournament game. Arnold played 34 minutes and had five rebounds, two points and two assists.
“Of course, a little bit (nervous), but when the game started, I just had to kick those jitters out and play ball,” Arnold said. “Some things to build on, of course, but you know, overall, great team ball and of course, me and Ashlynn and Qadence (Samuels) and Ice (Brady) doing what we can to help out our leaders on the team.”
Shade hit her first 3-pointer, which bounced up then fell in, with less than a minute left in the first quarter to give the Huskies a 22-8 lead.
“It felt good when I shot it, then I got that little lucky bounce,” Shade said. “I said, ‘Oh, that's good. That means the ball is going in my direction today.'”
It was. Her second 3 fell with two minutes left in the half and UConn led 42-19.
Then she scored 14 points in the third quarter – two 3s, a couple of jumpers and a nice putback with 1:29 left to put the Huskies up 69-45.
“I just thought (this morning), I'm going to play how the game comes to me today,” she said. “If I play my way, and my team's way, it just comes naturally, I think.”