UConn routs St. John’s as Fudd, Geno return
ELMONT, N.Y. — UConn women’s basketball guard Azzi Fudd missed her first shot.
She missed another from the inside less than 40 seconds later.
But it wasn’t long before she found her groove from her signature spot.
With about a minute left in the first quarter Wednesday night, Fudd caught a pass from Dorka Juhász on the right side of the arc. She immediately jumped up and released the ball. It swished through the net. Her first bucket in her first game back in over five weeks was, of course, a 3-pointer.
The return of UConn’s star sophomore was one of a handful of things to celebrate in the No. 4 Huskies’ 82-52 win over St. John’s at UBS Arena.
Head coach Geno Auriemma returned to the sideline to lead UConn (14-2, 7-0 Big East) after missing the past two games and spending a week away from the program to focus on his own health. While Auriemma coached the team throughout the game, associate head coach Chris Dailey conducted in-game and postgame media interviews.
The Huskies had eight available players after having to postpone Sunday’s game against DePaul due to not having enough healthy bodies.
Juhász, who joined the program as a transfer in 2021 from Ohio State, surpassed the 1,000 career rebound benchmark.
And Wednesday’s game was the first-ever women’s basketball game hosted inside UBS Arena, normally home to the NHL’s New York Islanders.
“Well, I think the fact that we hadn’t played since last Thursday, there was probably a little bit of energy and with a new building, coach (Auriemma) back. There were a lot of things. Knowing that we had Azzi back,” Dailey said. “I think there was a sense of excitement.”
UConn made quick work of the Red Storm. The Huskies scored 24 points off St. John’s 13 turnovers and won the rebound battle 31-23. UConn’s 10 turnovers were a season-low while its 62.3 field goal percentage was a season-high.
Lou Lopez Sénéchal led UConn with 20 points on 8 of 9 shooting. Juhász (10 rebounds, seven assists, one block and one steal) followed with 18 points. Aaliyah Edwards and Fudd came next with 15 each.
After sitting out the last eight games, Fudd played 20 minutes, shot 6 of 11 and grabbed down three rebounds and one assist against St. John’s.
“She just finds her way back so quickly,” Juhász said. “So it’s not really very challenging for us ... just having her back is amazing and she’s always gonna be there. An offensive threat. A defensive threat. So hopefully, obviously, she just keeps getting better and better.”
Over the past couple of weeks, Fudd has been slowly building on her rehab progression after injuring her right knee on Dec. 4 at Notre Dame. She participated in pregame warmups dressed down in uniform in UConn’s last three games as part of her process but knew she didn’t want to rush coming back.
Fudd said it wasn’t until last week that she and UConn’s strength and conditioning staff began to talk seriously about her return to the court.
“I feel like the knee is a
lot more serious than my foot last year ... but I wanted to make sure I was really ready,” Fudd said. “... I didn’t rush into it. I let my body get back into things at its own pace. So I felt good out there today.”
UConn opened against St. John’s (14-2, 5-2) with a 6-0 run. Fudd checked into the first quarter at about the halfway mark, yet it was UConn’s bigs (Edwards and Juhász) that paced the team. The two finished the first quarter with 12 of the team’s first 17 points.
After coming off the bench in the first quarter, Fudd started the second. She played for a total of under 12 minutes in the first half, going 2 of 5 from the floor for six points and three rebounds.
She played five minutes in the third and then checked back in to score UConn’s first seven points of the fourth quarter.
“If someone turned on the TV when they were watching the game I’m not sure they would know that she hadn’t played since December 4,” Dailey said.
Despite Fudd’s return and having another sub available on the bench, the Huskies still ran into foul trouble.
Lopez Sénéchal had eight straight points, including back-to-back 3-pointers, in a 14-2 run in the second quarter. But she was forced to take a seat on the bench after getting called for her third personal foul at the quarter’s 3:30-mark.
Amari DeBerry checked in for Edwards about two minutes later after the junior was called for her third.
Yet the Huskies’ defense kept the Red Storm at bay and held them without a field goal for the last 4:48 minutes of the first half. UConn led by as much as 21 and outscored St. John’s in the second quarter 24-9.
UConn returns home to host Georgetown on Sunday at Gampel Pavilion at 4 p.m. While it’s still without Ayanna Patterson and Caroline Ducharme due to concussions, a sense of normalcy has begun to set in with both Fudd and Auriemma’s return.
“They’re really a fun group to be around and I think once we get Carol (Ducharme) back and Ayanna back in the mix, it’s just going to add to where we’re going, what we’re working towards,” Dailey said. “So I just think everybody’s in a good place now.”