The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn transfer Azura Stevens is making up for lost time
Continues coming up big in NCAA tourney games
STORRS — Azurá Stevens certainly seems to have the hang of this March Madness thing.
When Stevens was a freshman at Duke, she scored in double figures in all three of the Blue Devils’ NCAA Tournament games. With Duke missing the 2016 tournament and Stevens needing to sit out last season after transferring to UConn, she wasn’t able to add to her postseason résumé — until now.
Stevens scored at better than a point-per-minute clip in wins over St. Francis (Pa.) and Quinnipiac to help UConn advance to the Sweet 16 for the 25th season in a row.
“It was hard sitting out last year, kind of missing that experience, but I’m excited,” said Stevens, who will face her former school on Saturday in the Albany Regional (1:30 p.m., ESPN).
The 6-foot-6 Stevens towered over the players from the Red Flash and Bobcats, so it was hardly a surprise to see UConn set up its offensive game plan to try to get either her or Napheesa Collier the ball in the low post. Collier finished with 48 points and Stevens 40 in the two games at the Storrs subregional. The only drawback was that at times during the Quinnipiac game, UConn didn’t move the ball on offense as much as it usually does, perhaps because the perimeter players were so focused on feeding the ball inside to the Huskies’ dynamic post players.
“We can exploit those mismatches, but we have to make sure we’re still moving,” Stevens said.
Although Collier and Stevens played together on some U.S. junior national teams before teaming up at
UConn, there were times earlier in the season when they seemed to struggle playing together, since they score in similar ways. Clearly those issues have been resolved, as some of UConn’s best basketball recently has been played with Collier and Stevens on the court together.
“Not only is she scoring down low, but she’s stepping out and hitting the 3; she made some great passes today,” Stevens said after Collier had 23 points and four assists in the 71-46 win over Quinnipiac on Monday.
The win sets up a game against Duke in the regional
semifinals. It is a much different Duke team than the one Stevens played for in her two seasons. Secondleading scorer Rebecca Greenwell, Erin Matthias and Faith Suggs are the only Blue Devils who played in Monday’s impressive win over Georgia who were Stevens’ teammates in 2015-16.
“I have some friends on the team, but no active players that I’m super close with,” Stevens said. “I’ll prepare for it like it’s any other game and they’re a team in the way of what we want to do, so I’m going to prepare for it like it’s any other game.”