Bueckers’ big evening leads UConn past UNC
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL No. 17 UConn 76, No. 24 North Carolina 64 (Sunday)
UNCASVILLE — Paige Bueckers threw her arm down and knocked away a North Carolina pass near midcourt.
The UConn women’s basketball star took off sprinting. She used four dribbles to collect the ball and leap up, scoring a layup. Bueckers screamed to the Mohegan Sun Arena crowd and chest bumped freshman KK Arnold in celebration as UNC called a timeout.
For the first time in a while, Bueckers, the 2021 National Player of the Year, was having fun again playing basketball.
Bueckers had her best all-around game this season and paced the No. 17 Huskies through a 76-64 win over No. 24 North Carolina Sunday afternoon in the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase.
“A lot of times I feel like I overthink and I’m just still trying to find my flow and still trying to figure out what the team needs,” Bueckers said. “... The overall focus coming to this game was just to have fun and compete and play Paige Bueckers basketball and play UConn basketball.”
The Husky star scored her 1,000th career point 17 seconds into the second half, tying former UConn legend Maya Moore with the fewest games to reach the milestone (55 games) in program history.
Bueckers, named the game’s MVP, finished with a game-high 26 points on 11 of 14 shooting, a careerhigh four blocks, two rebounds and three steals in 33 minutes. Senior forward Aaliyah Edwards followed with 16 points, 11 rebounds and two assists.
While the Huskies still struggled with inconsistency throughout the game, Bueckers’ performance got
everyone else involved for the first time all year. Players drove fearlessly and aggressively to the basket, chased down rebounds and moved both with and without the ball on offense.
Despite all the injuries and the low AP ranking, the Huskies finally looked like the typical, dominant team fans have grown accustomed to in the second half.
UConn outscored UNC 29-13 in the third and every Husky on the floor got involved. Edwards and Aubrey Griffin (five points, eight rebounds, four assists) were aggressive and physical on both sides of the floor while Nika Mühl (12 points, six assists) found success from deep. The offense was moving, both with and without the ball, as one and the Huskies’ defense was smothering.
The Huskies had runs of 11-0 and 10-0 to lead by as much as 16. UConn forced UNC into a season-high 15 turnovers heading into the fourth quarter (Tar Heels gave up 20 points off those mistakes).
Bueckers sparked the team’s second-half surge with her 1,000th career point and a steal-and-score play. Her defense Sunday was just as assertive as her offense.
The guard took charges and bounced back after every hard hit. She used her body to get physical on defense, pressuring players to give up the ball or make bad plays. And she even got up high to defend the rim with a career-high four blocks. Bueckers joked after the game it was because she wore a shooting sleeve for the first time, but her teammates know otherwise.
“It’s just incredible, you know, (four) blocks,” Mühl said. “I remember running in transition and my guy was getting a layup and I just looked up and I saw Paige going up there and blocking. My God, it was was incredible and I’m so proud of her and this is what she does, you know, no surprises, nothing different.”
While Bueckers was the star of the
game, UConn again couldn’t find overall consistency.
The Huskies were 1 of 6 from the floor in the first four minutes of the game before Bueckers made a 3-point play to tie the game early.
That seemed to get things going for the Huskies as their defense followed suit and shut down the Tar Heels. UNC went scoreless for over six minutes, giving up eight points off six turnovers. The Huskies led by as much as nine to end the first quarter, but the hot start didn’t last.
UNC opened the second quarter on a 12-6 run to shrink UConn’s lead to three. A 6-0 run from the Tar Heels minutes later tied the game at 28 with under four minutes left in the half.
“I would say there are times when it looks like we have figured out a little more,” Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma said. “But it’s a real struggle to sustain any kind of momentum, you know, within a quarter or within the game. We’re either having a dynamite quarter where everything’s flowing and, you know, it looks like we have a handle on what’s going on. But we’re not completely there yet on how to seamlessly incorporate all the other people with the way Paige wants to play.”
The Huskies failed to get shots to fall and ended the first half 10 of 19 on layups. The only player finding success on offense was Bueckers, who scored the team’s last six-straight points of the half.
After having eight turnovers in the first quarter, the Tar Heels only had one in the second. They also led on the boards 20-16. UConn, meanwhile, had given up seven points off eight turnovers.
Bueckers had a game-high 17 at halftime, but no other Husky had more than five. UNC outscored the Huskies 26-17 in the second quarter and entered halftime tied at 36 with UConn.
“I think Coach challenged us at halftime to set the tone, especially us three (Bueckers, Mühl and Edwards) defensively, and be more disciplined and knowing our scout, knowing our game plan, and just playing with an
intensity and intentionality on defense,” Bueckers said.
UConn’s defense prevented the Tar Heels from getting their first bucket of the second half until 6:29 in the third. But once again, UNC was quick to fight back asUConn took its foot off the gas.
The Tar Heels used a 9-0 run to shrink UConn’s lead to eight with three minutes remaining in the game. UConn failed to score for over six minutes, escaping the loss thanks to the time running out on UNC’s late comeback attempt.
“You look at our season and look at the quarters breakdown and there’s no rhyme,” Auriemma said. “There’s no consistency to it. It looks like a graph like this (Auriemma moved his hand up and down). And most of it is tied into our defense ... When you’re not running any good offense, your defense is going to be lousy.”
Bueckers and the Huskies will look to build off Sunday’s win when No. 18 Louisville visits the XL Center Saturday at noon. Can the Huskies sustain the momentum?
No. 17 UConn 76,
No. 24 North Carolina 64