RIVALRY RENEWED
Behind Williams’ 20 points and Bueckers’ clutch last-minute shot, UConn completes comeback
UConn’s Christyn Williams drives to the basket against Tennessee in a 67-61 victory over the Lady Vols on Thursday night at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee. Williams, who kicked off a fourth-quarter comeback with a corner three-pointer, led the Huskies with 20 points, and No. 3 UConn remained unbeaten in the coronavirus-disrupted season. UConn claimed its second win in a row over rival Tennessee, its first in Knoxville since 2004, and now leads the all-time series 15-9.
Paige Bueckers may not be old enough to remember the UConn-Tennessee rivalry in its heyday, but Thursday night on Rocky Top in UConn’s toughest game of the season to date, she made her mark in the latest installment of the programs’ rivalry and showed why she is considered the future of UConn basketball.
At first, nothing was going right for the freshman phenom point guard, who couldn’t find her shot as the Huskies found themselves trialing at the end of each of the first three quarters. And then whenUConn was just starting to show some life, pulling ahead by nine midway through the fourth, Bueckers rolled an ankle, barely able to move and needing to leave the game to get it taped.
But when the Huskies needed her most, Bueckers showed up, and big.
Having cut a nine-point deficit to two, Tennessee threatened to send UConn home with its first loss of the season, but Bueckers iced the game with the shot of the night, a 3-pointer from the wing with the shot-clock expiring to put UConn up by five with 25 seconds left. Bum ankle and all.
The No. 3 Huskies escaped with a 67-61 win over the No. 25 Lady Vols, their second ranked opponent of the season and in their first true road test of the season. And if they didn’t know her name already, the rest of the country learned Bueckers’ name in the process.
Bueckers’ clutch shot wouldn’t have been possible, though, without the contributions of UConn’s junior leaders, who helped UConn get over the finish line despite their struggles over the first three quarters: Christyn Williams had her most important performance of the season, scoring 20 points and carrying the Huskies’ offense only a few weeks after she went scoreless against Providence.
In her first game against her former team, Evina Westbrook had a pair of clutch fourth-quarter 3s in
the game-deciding stretch, finishing with 15 points on the night. Even Aubrey Griffin made her impact felt all over the court in her second start of her career.
Tennessee’s Rae Burrell led Tennessee with 18 points, 14 in the first half.
UConn took 10 3s in the first quarter, half of which were from bigs Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Griffin, and found themselves trailing the Lady Vols 16-17 at the end of the first frame. But the Huskies found more luck in the second period as they looked to attack the rim and create shots. Williams hit a midrange jumper and scored off a strong drive to the rim at the start of the second quarter, but she and Nelson-Ododa sat most of the period after the former picked up her second foul and the latter got hit in the eye.
Even with those two out, UConn was able to pull ahead by five off an 8-0 run off baskets from Aaliyah Edwards, Bueckers and Westbrook.
Tennessee snatched the lead again late off back-to-back baskets from
Tamari Key and Destiny Salary to go up four, but Westbrook drained a 3 toward the end of the half to cut the deficit to one going into the break.
With Nelson-Ododa and Williams back in the second half, UConn could never build an advantage and saw things start to slip away. Williams was the only UConn player to score in the final 7 ½ minutes of the third quarter as Bueckers’ shooting struggles carried over from the first half, and Tennessee took advantage of UConn’s sloppiness to head into the fourth with a 49-45 edge.
The tide turned back in UConn’s favor early in the fourth: Nelson-Ododa blocked a Tennessee shot and fed the ball to Williams, who missed the fastbreak layup before Bueckers cleaned it upofftheputback.Tennesseetieditonce more, but Westbrook drained back-toback3s,andNelson-OdodaandWilliams converted two layups, to put UConn ahead61-52, its largest lead of the night.
Prior to Bueckers’ big shot, Tennessee cut the lead to four whenthe freshman was out getting her ankle taped.