What started as a bounce off the knee quickly turned into stunned silence.
Redshirt senior Paige Bueckers unintentionally dribbled the ball off her leg with 1:20 left in the third quarter. A tussle for the loose ball between her and first-year student Jasmine Bascoe ensued.
Nearly everyone inside Finneran Pavilion fell silent when Bueckers twisted to the ground and immediately grimaced in pain. She remained down, primarily holding her left knee, for what felt like an eternity.
The Minnesota native only required assistance getting back up on her feet, but she limped her way to the locker room. Bueckers’ departure marred the No. 7 UConn women’s basketball team’s 83-52 win over the Villanova Wildcats in Pennsylvania Sunday afternoon.
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The two-time Big East Player of the Year returned to the bench about three minutes later. Sporting an ice pack on her left knee and left ankle, Bueckers both supported her teammates and reacted to the pain she felt. She only stood up approximately three times between her return to the sidelines and the end of the game.
No official update has been provided regarding the two-time WBCA Coaches’ All-American, who finished with 15 points and a season-high nine assists.
The Finn never regained the energy it had up until that point. UConn’s unselfishness with the basketball did not disappear, however; they recorded an assist on eight of their last nine field goals following Bueckers’ injury. It ultimately helped the Huskies collect a season-best 30 assists on their 35 field goals.
Graduate guard Kaitlyn Chen had seven dimes despite not scoring. While she only had two, sophomore KK Arnold continued her hot start to 2025. Four days removed from playing in her home state of Wisconsin, Arnold set another season high in points (15) and field goals (six).
Only first-year student Sarah Strong scored more in any quarter than the Big East All-Freshman Team guard did. Strong made each of her first four shot attempts for 10 points in the opening frame. The former No. 1 recruit had 17 points by halftime and ultimately picked up 21 on 9-12 shooting with five rebounds and four assists.
Strong posted those numbers while committing just one turnover—an offensive foul late in the third quarter. Almost halfway through the 6-foot-2 forward’s rookie season, head coach Geno Auriemma continues to be impressed with her maturity.
“I marvel at the composure that she has, the way the game plays so slow for her. That usually does not come until much later in your career,” Auriemma said about the McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVP postgame. “If anything great is going to happen to this team, it is because she is going to be at the forefront of it.”
Bascoe needed 20 minutes to get going, but once she did, she spearheaded Villanova’s offense. After a four-point first half, the Wildcats’ leading scorer found a spark with eight points on 3-4 shooting. The third quarter alone accounted for most of Bascoe’s team-best 12 points.
If the Ontario native dominated the third quarter, then graduate guard Maddie Burke controlled the final frame. Burke scored all nine of her points on 3-5 shooting from downtown, with two of her three triples coming in the last 2.5 minutes. Junior Denae Carter, meanwhile, had 10 first-half points and a game-high seven rebounds.
Carter did not score the game’s first points, but she accounted for both of the Wildcats’ layups in the opening frame. Strong picked up as many points on two three-pointers as the former Mississippi State Bulldog had in the first 10 minutes.
The North Carolina native maintained her hot start with layups on consecutive possessions four minutes into the second quarter. Her buckets followed two straight three-pointers from sophomore guard Ashlynn Shade and ultimately yielded a Villanova timeout.
UConn’s defense, meanwhile, tightened up significantly between both quarters. The Huskies forced three turnovers, two of them travels, before the Wildcats scored a single point in the second quarter. Connecticut forced another giveaway before ending their three-minute scoring drought following the media timeout. Despite the dry spell, the Huskies limited Villanova to just two points in that span. Carter picked up those points on a jumper and made the last field goal of the first half with 17 seconds left.
Bascoe and sophomore guard Maddie Webber gave the Wildcats their best momentum on offense following the intermission. Both underclassmen combined for all 13 of Villanova’s third-quarter points, 10 of which came in the first 3.5 minutes.
Connecticut only scored four points in that span as they started 1-5 from the floor. Once Azzi Fudd buried a triple in front of the Huskies’ bench, however, the team’s offense returned. That bucket sparked a 15-3 UConn run that lasted the rest of the quarter.
Yet Bueckers’ injury late in the frame swiftly quieted the sellout crowd. No one in the audience made any noise until the redshirt senior guard stood up. Their applause grew louder when she ultimately returned to the sidelines. Arnold scored her first points of the second half as the athletic trainer wrapped an ice pack around Bueckers’ left knee.
The 5-foot-9 guard tacked on another nine points in the final frame, helping offset the Wildcats’ three-point offense. Four out of Villanova’s nine triples on the afternoon came over the contest’s last 10 minutes; Burke had three of them for all of her points. Five other players scored between both conference foes as Connecticut crossed the 80-point mark for the first time since December 17, 2024.
Despite the Huskies’ latest injury scare, Auriemma remained optimistic after the game.
“Like when it was with Azzi [Fudd when she exited with an injury on Dec. 7], it is not the worst thing that we can imagine,” the 40th-year head coach commented. “That is great news considering how awkward it was.”
UConn, with or without Bueckers, returns to the Nutmeg State for the first time in 2025 when they host the Xavier Musketeers at the XL Center. Tip-off Wednesday is at 7:30 p.m. on SNY.
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