Fudd returns and Huskies get back up to speed
Mohegan — The easiness that having Azzi Fudd on the floor brings returned to the UConn women's basketball team Saturday afternoon.
For instance: the first three questions of the postgame press conference and the bulk of the queries, in general, went to Fudd, the former national high school player of the year. After the players left and it was UConn coach Geno Auriemma's turn to speak, Auriemma switched his microphone to the one that junior Aaliyah Edwards had been using.
“Azzi's is worn out,” Auriemma said. “I want a fresh one.”
Top-seeded UConn opened the Big East Conference tournament Saturday with a 69-39 victory over No. 9 Georgetown in the quarterfinal round, marking Fudd's first appearance since Jan. 15 due to a right knee injury.
“Whenever you have a player like Azzi Fudd back out there, you're talking about an All-American,” Georgetown coach James Howard said. “The kid can score from all three areas of the floor, pull-up jumper, get to the rim, shoot the 3, and also make her teammates better with the ball in her hands.
“So when you have Azzi, you're talking about a Final Four type of team now.”
Edwards finished with 19 points, 13 rebounds, two steals and a career-high four blocked shots for defending champion UConn (27-5), which will meet No. 5 Marquette in the quarterfinals beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday back at Mohegan Sun Arena (FS1).
Marquette (21-9) defeated No. 4 St. John's 57-47 in the quarterfinals.
Lou Lopez Senechal added 14 points and Dorka Juhasz 13 points and 10 rebounds for UConn. Fudd played just over 16 minutes and had 10 points and four assists with a pair of 3-point field goals. Aubrey Griffin had 11 rebounds.
The Huskies led 35-12 at halftime, limiting Georgetown to 13.9% shooting.
“This was always my goal, to come back for tournament time,” Fudd said. “So I'd been working up to it this last week at individual practice. I was mentally prepared. Then waking up this morning, I was very excited.
“... I knew that I've been doing well, so kind of just have confidence in all the work I've put in and not to overthink it. And what happens, happens.
If I miss, I’ll make the next one.”
UConn, its roster diminished by injuries which necessitated the five starters play the bulk of the minutes, finished the regular season with a slog of 10 straight games decided by 10 points or fewer, three of them losses.
Saturday was a change of pace from that, beginning with a pair of blocked shots by Edwards on Georgetown’s very first possession.
UConn held the Hoyas without a field goal for nine and a half minutes beginning with 1:16 remaining in the first quarter.
The Huskies outscored the Hoyas (14-17) 18-4 in the second quarter, with Georgetown shooting 1-for-13 (7.7%).
“First, mostly, I think we all just took a breath. OK, we’re going into the right steps of being a complete team again,” Edwards said of Fudd’s return. “And I think everyone was happy to have her on the court because it was going back to our first game of the season when we felt ... everything was clicking for us and we were on to have a great season.”
Auriemma said the final score wasn’t as important as the Huskies beginning their foray into the postseason with the right feel — “I thought there was a 20-minute stretch there, if you add it all up, where I thought we just played great at both ends of the floor,” he said.
Fudd missed eight games from Dec. 8-Jan. 5 with an injury to her right knee. She returned on Jan. 11 at St. John’s but suffered a different injury to the same knee Jan. 15 against Georgetown.
Earlier Saturday, UConn announced that Fudd, who missed 22 games, would be available. Entering the game, Fudd was averaging 17.9 points, shooting 23-for-53 (43.4%) from 3-point range.
UConn also announced that Juhasz, who missed Monday night’s game against Xavier with an ankle injury, would be available against Georgetown.
That gave the Huskies access to all 10 available players for just the second time this season. That was short-lived, however, as sophomore Caroline Ducharme went down with an apparent head injury in the second quarter and did not return.