The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Matching a legend
Auriemma ties Summitt for career wins
STORRS — It wasn’t as dominant as most of Geno Auriemma’s wins over his Hall of Fame career. Not even close. It was more of a slog. A proverbial mud fight.
But it was enough.
Third-ranked UConn overcame a slow start to beat Providence 87-50 on Saturday at Gampel Pavilion, moving Auriemma into a tie with Tennessee legend Pat Summitt for second on the all-time list with 1,098 career victories.
“I would like to think that if you’ve done something for 37 years that you’re going to have some milestones,” Auriemma said. “If you’re fortunate enough you have some pretty important milestones, and if you are lucky enough to be surrounded by the people that I’ve been surrounded with, there are actual meaningful milestones.”
Auriemma is 1,098-142 over 36 seasons at UConn, including 7-0 this year, and his .885 winning percentage is an NCAA record. He will have an opportunity to move past Summitt on Wednesday when UConn hosts Seton Hall. Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, also currently active, holds the record with 1,104.
His latest win didn’t come without some early frustration. Playing their first game in 11 days
and just the second in 18, the Huskies were noticeably rusty. They went nearly the first four minutes without scoring and didn’t sink their first basket until 5:04 in. Providence forced six turnovers during that stretch and led 7-1, prompting Auriemma to shake up his lineup.
He subbed out every starter with the except of freshman Paige Bueckers, who would score 14 of her game-high 23 points in the first half. She finished 8 of 10 from the floor and added five assists and four rebounds.
“We just started off the game slow,” Bueckers said. “I don’t know what it was. They just got off to a really good start and we didn’t.”
Added Auriemma: “We put a group of players out that there picked up the tempo, and that’s what changed the game. It was really that simple.”
Sophomore Aubrey Griffin, who recently has been battling back spasms, came off the bench to collect 18 points and nine rebounds in 24 minutes — all season highs.
Also finishing in double figures were Evina Westbrook (13), Olivia NelsonOdoda (11) and Aaliyah
Edwards (10), who started for the first time in place of Anna Makurat.
“It’s just going in and doing what I know I can do, just staying confident,” Griffin said of her performance.
A 3-pointer by Makurat gave the Huskies their first lead at 13-12. They stayed ahead 19-18 going into the second quarter, then stretched it to 46-29 at halftime.
“When they came into the game, things changed,” Auriemma told SNY at halftime of his lineup, which at one point featured Bueckers, Griffin, Makurat and freshmen Nika Muhl and Mir McLean. “There was an uptick in our level of intensity and our whole work ethic. … I was really disappointed in that first group when the game started.”
Auriemma said NelsonOdoda and Christyn Williams, in particular, need to play better. Williams, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, didn’t attempt a single shot and played only 13 minutes.
“It’s not that simple,” he said. “It’s not that complicated.”
Kyra Spiwak and Alyssa Geary finished with 10 points apiece to lead Providence (5-7).
CHANGING ROLES
Auriemma left the huddle during a break in the third quarter and handed his clipboard to freshman walk-on Autumn Chassion.
“You know Autumn got a 4.0 (GPA)?” Auriemma said of Chassion, who was valedictorian of her senior high school class in Louisiana. “I have never got a 4.0 so I thought maybe the players would know that and they’d be more interested in listening to someone who was smarter than them and smarter than me, because what I was saying wasn’t really registering.”
MIXING IT UP
Auriemma moved Makurat to the bench to take off some pressure and get her going. While it seemed to work — she was 3 for 5 from the floor after going 2 for 10 over her previous two games — he’d prefer to move her back to a starting role.
“I’ll have to rethink that,” he said. “We’ll see.”
GOOD HUMOR
Bueckers interrupted Auriemma’s postgame Zoom conference to ask him what type of hair product he uses.
“It looks good,” she said. “Why are you surprised?” he responded. “When you get hair as nice as mine you can have my product.”
Notes: Auriemma said he’s more concerned about reaching the minimum games threshold to qualify for the NCAA Tournament than he is about his 1,098 career wins: “Today was game No. 7 for us. I’m just trying to get to game No.