Seizing the moment
Ducharme making the most of chance with injury-riddled Huskies
No one knew what would come next for UConn when Paige Bueckers fell to the floor on Dec. 5 in front of a hushed crowd at Gampel Pavilion
Two days later, UConn announced Bueckers would be out for eight weeks to recover from a tibial plateau fracture. She later had surgery that also repaired a torn meniscus and she won’t be back until sometime in February.
UConn’s best player was out, just like that. The Huskies also lost Nika Mühl to a foot injury, after a similar injury had already sidelined freshman Azzi Fudd.
With just three healthy guards, the Huskies needed someone to step up.
In the four games since UConn lost Bueckers, it’s been freshman Caroline Ducharme who has risen to the opportunity and exceeded expectations. Not only has she been a consistent scorer, it’s also her defense that has propelled her to play the best basketball of any Husky during this span with Bueckers out.
Ducharme, a 6-foot-2 Milton, Massachusetts, native, has averaged a team-best 14.3 points per game over the past four games after averaging just 3.6 points in her first five games. She went from playing 7.8 minutes per game to now averaging 34.8 minutes per game.
She hasn’t just stepped up to help, she’s leaped.
“Coming here in June and coming out of high school, she had a long way to go from strength and conditioning-wise,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said after Sunday’s 63-55 win over Creighton. “She made a tremendous amount of progress right away in that area and then her competitiveness, her competitive spirit allows her to get better because she doesn’t dwell on what she can’t do. …
“She doesn’t worry about what the previous play brought. If it was a made shot, a shot, doesn’t matter. She just goes on and makes the next play, the next play, the next play, and that’s what I really admire about her.”
Before Bueckers went down in the final minute of UConn’s game against Notre Dame, Ducharme was having her breakout game as a Husky, recording a then-career high of 14 points, including three 3-pointers, to go with three rebounds in 14 minutes against the Irish.
Despite going into the following week knowing the team would be out four players due to injuries, Ducharme said it was after her performance against the Irish when things finally began to click for her. She stopped worrying about making mistakes and instead focused on what she knew she
could do well.
“With all the injuries, I think everyone kinda knew that everyone would have to step up in different ways to fill the gaps that we lost,” Ducharme said. “Just coming in knowing that I would have to have a different role, a different mindset, and just being more comfortable out there has really helped me.
“I think during that time I was just overthinking everything and not wanting to make mistakes instead of just playing and doing what I do best. I think just changing the mindset to doing what you do, and everyone has their role to do what you know how to do. I think that’s really helped me and improved my confidence and made me more comfortable out there.”
Ducharme’s minutes doubled in the Huskies’ next game. In 28 minutes in UConn’s loss at Georgia Tech, Ducharme grabbed five boards despite going 1 of 5 from the floor.
The freshman earned her first career start the following game when UConn hosted UCLA at the Never Forget Tribute Classic in Newark. She scored 14 while recording two assists, two blocks and one steal in 32 minutes.
In UConn’s loss to Louisville on Dec. 19, she played her first full 40minute game. Ducharme carried the team through the matchup and kept them within six points in the final quarter while the Cardinals began to pull away. She was the only player across either team to play the full game and led both teams with a careerhigh 24 points and eight rebounds (Christyn Williams played 39 minutes and was subbed out in the final minute).
“She’s such a competitor,” Auriemma said. “She competes and she wants to be really, really good so whatever she sets her mind to, it’s gonna get done. I have no doubt about that.”
But it’s not just the freshman’s offense that has helped propel the team. It’s also her defense.
Most recently, in UConn’s win over Creighton, the freshman again led the Huskies’ offense but also was the highlight of its defense in helping keep the Bluejays to their lowest point total all season. Ducharme came up big with a game-high 17 points Sunday, but it was her three blocks and two steals that gave UConn’s defensive attack the strength to hold off the Bluejays.
“Since June it’s been something that I’ve been focusing on and just trying to keep my defender in front of me. It’s an everyday focus in practice, outside of practice, extra workouts and stuff like that,” Ducharme said. “There is still a lot of ways to improve on it, but it’s a good start.”
Mühl, in her first game back since Dec. 5, rewarded Ducharme with a chest bump after the freshman’s first block and again after her second. Both times Ducharme was able to jump up and swat away the shooter’s ball into the crowd mid-shot.
Ducharme played 38 minutes Sunday and also finished with five rebounds and two assists.
“We’ve had some injuries and obviously we needed people to step up and I thought Caroline has done an amazing job just filling in that role,” Williams said. “Like today she had three blocks, so she definitely had been working on her defensive efforts that I see every day in practice. She’s a scorer. She’s not afraid to shoot that thing. She just lets it fly, and we love it.”