The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Edwards injured as UConn gets past Providence
UNCASVILLE — The whistle blew and all one could hear was the sobbing. Mohegan Sun Arena fell silent.
Aaliyah Edwards lay on the floor under the basket, clutching her face as she cried out in pain after getting smacked in the face by a Providence defender.
Blood dripped onto the court from under her nose. Another UConn women’s basketball nightmare became reality.
The star senior, the Huskies’ lone experienced big, left the
court at 6:02 in the third quarter to a standing ovation. A towel, originally white but now staining pink, covered her face while she walked into the locker room.
With just seven available players to finish the game, topseeded UConn responded by pulling out an 86-53 win over No. 9 Providence in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals Saturday thanks to a pair of underclassmen. The Huskies advance to a conference tournament semifinals for the 36th straight year and will face No. 5 Marquette Sunday at 2:30 p.m. for a chance to play in their fourthstraight Big East Tournament championship.
“It’s just been numbing for us to the point where there really wasn’t much that you could say other than, you know, ‘This is it. This is what we’ve got,’ ” Geno Auriemma said. “We talked a lot about some of these young guys have to grow up and they have to grow up fast. And you don’t know until you put them in that situation what (they) can do.”
While UConn (27-5) has learned how play shorthanded all year long, but not having its best forward on the floor made its already slim margin of error that much smaller. And it didn’t help that the Huskies were battling through foul and turnover trouble early in the game too.
UConn began Saturday with just eight available players, as Amari DeBerry remains out due to a concussion. Edwards’ injury left the team with just
seven healthy players — yet, also with the perfect opportunity for the right players to step up and takeover.
Big East Player of the Year Paige Bueckers dominated on offense. Freshman KK Arnold set the tone on defense and redshirt freshman Ice Brady checked in for Edwards to control the post.
“Once Aaliyah went down, we kind of called a huddle and we were talking about just how locked in we have to be, how extra focus we’re gonna have to be, stepping in for Aaliyah who does so much for us,” Bueckers said.
After just a 10-point lead at halftime, the Huskies outscored Providence 45-18 in the final 15 minutes following Edwards’ injury to blow open the game.
“Sometimes you’re put in a situation where you have no choice, which I kind of love that because it brings out the best of you,” Auriemma said. “... It’s a lot but it gives you an opportunity to show what you got.”
Bueckers missed a pair of free throws after Edwards’
injury was called an intentional foul on Providence (13-20). But that only further fueled Bueckers’ fire.
The redshirt junior scored bucket after bucket. She made driving into the crowded lane look easy and shot from deep with ease. On defense, she ripped away loose
balls and swatted away Providence’s shot attempts. She stalked the space under the hoop and muscled her way through defenders to grab rebounds and find her open teammates.
“That woman is amazing,” Providence head coach Erin Batth said. “You can’t stop her. You
just try to slow her down, make her work a little bit harder. There’s not a lot of weaknesses with Miss. Bueckers at all . ... She’s a magnificent player.”
She scored 11 points in the third quarter, including five straight shots, before finishing with 29 points, nine rebounds, six assists, three blocks and three steals.
While Bueckers did the heavy lifting, Arnold rose up big in her first career postseason game. The guard was the fastest on the floor and the best defender all afternoon. She consistently got in the face of Providence’s players and frustrated them by mirroring their movements into rushing passes and turning over the ball.
And it wasn’t just on defense. The point guard was quick to find her spot on the floor. She drained back-to-back 3-poitners in the first quarter and her steal-and-score in third put UConn up by eight.
“KK’s able to have that kind of impact on our team,” Auriemma said. “There’s an attitude or there’s something about her that’s somewhat infectious. It’s somewhat galvanizing that when you get somebody like that, that makes a big play at
the defensive and then comes down and makes a big play at the offensive end, you could see the entire team get lifted. .. She really was tremendous today in every facet of the game.”
Arnold finished with 17 points, five rebounds, five assists and one steal in 37 minutes.
Brady checked in for Edwards halfway through the third and stayed in the rest of the game. Despite getting called for three fouls in the first half, the 6-foot-3 forward stayed poised when it mattered most. She was smart with her physicality and demanded space down low.
While Edwards sat out the remainder of the game, she did return to the bench with a bandage on her nose during the fourth quarter. Auriemma said her nose looked like “it’s been through a fight” and that the team will know more about her status later.
All week long Auriemma said his biggest concern heading into the postseason was how his freshmen would react under the bright lights. On Saturday he got his answer.
“The way we responded that second half and how our players performed, I thought was tremendous,” Auriemma said. “We showed a lot of maturity during that stretch and a lot of toughness and a lot of character because you’re out there playing and you know, you’re not coming out. That’s a tough way to to play basketball.”