UConn women roll into final
ovation from the pro-UConn crowd at Mohegan Sun Arena just for dribbling the ball up the floor.
“Just communicating, leading by example, leading by passion, leading by the energy that I played with and just leave it all out on the floor,” Bueckers said. “We know what we don't have, but we didn't want to focus on that. We wanted to focus on who was on the floor.”
Ice Brady, a 6-3 redshirt freshman entering her first postseason, started the game in place of Edwards and played all 40 minutes, finishing with 10 points and five rebounds. Freshman Ashlynn Shade was also on the floor for 40 minutes and had nine points.
Liza Karlen had 12 points for Marquette (238), which was 0-for-13 shooting in the fourth quarter.
The Golden Eagles were also 2-for-17 in the first quarter (11.8%), getting off to a tenuous start against the Huskies, who led 12-5 after one quarter and 31-20 at halftime.
Bueckers said of taking the opening tip that it was “a discussion,” but an argument she was determined to win.
After she directed the tip to Nika Muhl in the backcourt?
“Yeah. I don't know if they had the utmost confidence in me like the confidence that I had in myself to win the jump ball,” Bueckers said of the UConn bench. “So I just let them know a little bit.”
Auriemma said there were times in Sunday morning's shootaround he didn't feel like playing without Edwards, on top of the six other UConn players already out with injuries, was possible.
“We knew that definitely we needed to play really, really well and it was even better than I imagined,” Auriemma said. “The way we carried each other was probably the most impressive thing for me ... we relied on each other so much.
“Obviously, Paige did Paige things, but everybody ... today was really a team triumph. It really, really was. It was pretty special to be a part of that.”