Turn of the century Williams’ maturity shows in numbers and beyond as UConn rolls
STORRS — Basketball, Geno Auriemma tells his players, is not a game of how to. It is a game of when to.
By the time any freshman arrives at UConn, she knows how to shoot, how to pass, how to dribble circles around most players.
What separates the really good from the great over the ensuing four years is one’s ability to react rationally to thousands of split-second opportunities that eventually become the collage for a career.
“We have these conversations all the time,” Auriemma said. “When do you make that pass? When do you make that drive? When do you take that open 3? When do you have to kick it?” Christyn Williams is a really good player. On Saturday in a lopsided victory over Xavier, she showed an understanding for the incremental steps toward becoming great.
Williams didn’t necessarily stand out for
attempts in the first three games, hit 6 of 10 in the first half Saturday and 10 of 18 overall. Williams sank a trio of 3s in the first half, which matched her season output from deep coming into the game.
“It felt really good,” Williams said of the team’s hot 3-point shooting. “We’ve been working hard to consistently shoot 3s and make them. We’ve been putting in the work, so they’re going to fall at some point, and today they fell. Hopefully, we can just continue to do that consistently.”
Williams, who scored 17 points by halftime, looked the best she has all season, continuing an upward trend. After an underwhelming start to her junior season, she has scored at least 15 points in three straight games (over 20 in two of them). But most importantly, Saturday was her most efficient performance yet, as she went 8-for-11 from the field (4-for-5 on 3s).
“She was in her zone,” junior Olivia Nelson-Ododa said of Williams. “Transition, that’s her thing, and just driving with the ball and stuff. She was just on-point tonight with that. I think also on the defensive end, she was forcing turnovers in the traps, and that was something that we were really working on and we wanted to do tonight.”
But UConn built its massive first-quarter lead by suffocating Xavier on the defensive end, rather, limiting the Musketeers to two made field goals and turning 14 turnovers into 22 points.
That defense, combined with a strong shooting night, generated a 19-0 run for UConn to start the game and a 38-7 lead after 10 minutes. When the Huskies went into the locker room at the half, they led 60-27 and had made 75 percent of their shots.
“We did a great job in our press defense,” Williams said. “We got a lot of steals and got a chance to get out in transition, and that fueled our fire for the rest of the game.”
A 17-4 UConn run to start the third further widened the gap. The Huskies were still shooting 72 percent — approximately their program-high shooting percentage for a game — going into the fourth quarter.
Following up a strong outing against Creighton on Thursday, Nelson-Ododa (16 points) hit her first five shots Saturday — giving her 20 straight made field goals going back to the Seton Hall game — while also dominating the defensive glass (11 boards).
Redshirt junior Evina Westbrook (15 points), sophomore Aubrey Griffin (13) and freshman Aaliyah Edwards (11) additionally reached double figures in the second half, Westbrook and Griffin setting season highs in scoring.
UConn is set to travel to Villanova to play the Wildcats on Tuesday at 7 p.m., which will complete its stretch of four Big East games in eight days and will be the team’s final game before an eight-day break around the holidays.
Quotable
For the second time in this young season, Bueckers fell just short of a double-double, finishing with 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting and dishing out nine assists.
But Auriemma seemed more concerned with her team-high (and season-high) six turnovers than anything else.
“I’m sure Paige will get a Christmas gift from all the teams that we play,” Auriemma said. “Once we get a big lead, she starts throwing it to their players. Because, you know, she’s from Minnesota and she feels sorry for them. ‘You betcha.’ ”