Eight is so great
Huskies shrug off Indiana behind Bueckers, Williams
BRIDGEPORT — UConn women’s basketball star sophomore Paige Bueckers fell hard on her knee in the first quarter of Saturday’s regional semifinal.
She grimaced in pain and walked to the bench to get looked over by a trainer.
Nika Mühl came off the bench in Bueckers’ place. A quarter later, with Bueckers back in, Mühl drained a 3-pointer to swing momentum back to UConn. It was her only points of the day, but still, they impacted the Huskies’ pace.
While Bueckers’ fall didn’t keep her sidelined for long, the Huskies’ talented depth propelled the team to a 75-58 Sweet 16 win over No. 3 seeded Indiana Saturday at Total Mortgage Arena.
“In a tournament different people are going to have to step up at different times, not one person can carry a team to a National Championship,” Bueckers said. “Today it was a really well-balanced attack. And I think that’s the best thing that came out of all this adversity was just the confidence that everybody got that no matter what we have each other’s back and we’re going to step up for each other.”
The No. 2 Huskies (28-5) advanced to their 16th straight Elite Eight and will face No. 1 seed NC State at around 7 p.m. (exact time is TBD) Monday for the chance to play in next weekend’s Final Four in Minneapolis.
The Wolfpack advanced to Monday’s regional final after defeating No. 5 Notre Dame 66-63. This is the program’s second trip to the Elite Eight and first since 1998.
All 11 available Huskies saw time on the floor with eight scoring. Bueckers and Christyn Williams led with 15 points each, followed by Azzi Fudd with 13. Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 10 points and led with 14 rebounds while Aaliyah Edwards added 10 rebounds and nine points. UConn held Indiana (24-9) to just two offensive boards while outrebounding the Hooisers 39-27 and outscoring in the paint 46-32. But it
wasn’t just the Husky starters who contributed as UConn’s bench outscored Indiana’s 13-1.
“Everybody has a particular role to play,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “That doesn’t mean they always love their role, enjoy their role. Everybody wants to be up here talking to (media) because they were the leading scorer or the leading this or the leading that, but that’s not how you win championships. Everybody has got to do a little bit.”
In her fourth start since returning from knee injury, Bueckers played 33 minutes and attempted 17 shots — the most she’s shot in her return. Last year’s national player of the year missed 10 weeks recovering from December surgery on her knee. On Saturday, she was plus-16.
“It’s easy to come back from an injury and think a lot and second-guess your decisions,” she said. “But I thought it helped me a lot just coming out of the gate aggressive just because I didn’t have to think about anything, I just played basketball and I took what the defense gave me. My teammates did a great job of getting me open, and it was sort of how they were playing the game, sort of their schemes on defense, and the shots that I got.”
UConn started Saturday’s game with the same poor shooting it had on Monday against UCF. Indiana opened on an 8-2 run as UConn suffered three turnovers in its first four possessions.
The Huskies began to find their grove and got within two of the Hoosiers before Bueckers took a hard fall in the final minutes of the first quarter. She appeared to be in pain but was able to get up and walk to the bench on her own power. The sophomore sat on the bench the rest of the quarter having her left knee, the one she had surgery on, looked at by trainers before eventually getting it taped.
In her absence, UConn relied on its depth — Fudd’s sharp shooting, Williams’ everywhere-atonce-presence and NelsonOdoda’s height — to put together an 8-0 run and take a hold of the lead, 21-18, to end the period. Williams recorded five points, two rebounds, one block and one assist in the three minutes.
“There comes a point when you’re a senior and you’ve played as much basketball as Christyn and Liv have, where you have to put it on your own shoulders and go, ‘I have control over how this ends,’” Auriemma said. “They actually do. They have more control than I do. So you have to exercise that control, and that’s what she’s doing for the first time in her career.”
Bueckers returned to the court to start the second with the momentum shifting to UConn’s control.
After only playing a four minutes in Monday’s second-round win, Caroline Ducharme didn’t enter Saturday’s game until a couple minutes into the second quarter. The freshman immediately made an impact, making a layup less than 20 seconds after stepping onto the court. Her bucket sparked a 6-0 UConn run which featured steal-and-score plays from both Evina Westbrook and Neslon-Ododa.
Westbrook, who also came off the bench, had her second scope-and-score play to close out the third quarter. The fifth-year senior showed why she’s often the team’s go-to bench surge as she was the only guard to finish with more than one block.
The Hoosiers couldn’t avoid the Huskies’ length in the post on defense, especially Edwards. The sophomore used her body to deflect shots and box-out under the basket. She ended the first half with a team-high eight rebounds and two blocks. Edwards’ final 10 rebounds marked the second time this season she’s had double-digit boards.
“You’ve been able to see her growth throughout the entire season, and I think she’s really peaking at the right moment, and you can definitely see it when she plays,” Nelson-Ododa said. “She’s aggressive and she keeps that mentality throughout the entire game, and she really contributes a lot on both ends.”
It was all UConn to start the third with the Huskies putting up 16 unanswered points before Indiana was able to get a bucket to fall. UConn led by as much as 20 as it was able to ride out the win. Williams scored 10 of her 15 points in the second half and grabbed down six rebounds — the most she’s had since Jan. 30.
Whether it was the consistent shooting from Bueckers, Williams’ allaround play or the bench surges from Ducharme and Westbrook, UConn’s depth was on full display Saturday.
“Monday (UConn’s win or UCF) was a huge reminder to our team, that, ‘Yo, this is how these things go. You don’t just roll in, have a conversation with the other team and go, what do you want the score tonight to be?’ You’ve got to go out and beat their (expletive),” Auriemma said. “They’re not going to lose. Nobody is going to lose to you in this tournament. You’ve got to go out and beat them. It’s getting harder and harder every year, let me tell you. We saw that first game. Man, every game is hard. Every game is a grind. These kids don’t want their season to end. Nobody does. Nobody does.”
One player absent:
Sophomore Piath Gabriel was absent from the bench Saturday and Friday. A UConn spokesperson told Hearst Connecticut Media the sophomore was in class on Friday during UConn’s practice day and Auriemma said after Saturday’s game that she had school work to do back in Storrs.