Following the UConn women’s basketball team’s first practice of the season, redshirt senior Paige Bueckers highlighted how no one saw her “work tour.”
A sellout crowd at Gampel Pavilion witnessed the first unofficial output of her hard-working offseason against the Fort Hays State Tigers.
Bueckers buried each of her first eight shot attempts and outscored the Tigers 19-17 in the first half. The Minnesota native made 12 of her 14 attempts on the day. Despite Connecticut’s sluggish first quarter start, Bueckers’ performance and a 17-0 second quarter run fueled an 89-49 victory over Fort Hays State.
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While not perfect from the floor, Sunday’s contest showed a more aggressive side of the redshirt senior guard that people might not have seen before.
“This is what Paige wants to do, exactly what she did today. That is how she wants to play,” head coach Geno Auriemma said postgame. “I am sure that is something she is going to try to do every game.”
As assertive as she was, though, Bueckers did not carry the Huskies’ entire workload versus the Tigers.
Guards Ashlynn Shade and Kaitlyn Chen each made positive contributions on offense. Shade, the Big East Freshman of the Year, bounced back from two quick first-quarter fouls with 15 points and four steals. Chen, the graduate transfer from Princeton, picked up 14 points and five assists in 35 minutes.
Both veteran guards contributed on the boards as much as No. 1 recruit Sarah Strong did in her unofficial collegiate debut. Strong looked, for the most part, anything but a first-year student in her 27 minutes on the court. The North Carolina native nearly snagged a double-double with 11 points and eight boards against Fort Hays State’s stingy frontcourt defense.
Beyond her Aaliyah Edwards-like performance, Strong showed the strengths of a point guard with one three-pointer on six tries and three assists. There were times where the McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVP passed up on taking a shot, but Auriemma hints that this tendency could change quickly.
“You can see the plays that she makes. She is a playmaker,” the 40th-year head coach commented. “She has terrific instincts. As each game goes by, she will be less hesitant. There is no denying her ability to impact at both ends.”
UConn’s looming question involved figuring out how the team would look and operate without their star guard on the floor. Sophomore guard Qadence Samuels answered that herself with 10 points and three assists in the fourth quarter alone.
Eight of the nine available Huskies got in the game on Sunday. With the current state of Connecticut’s roster, Samuels’ late-game performance could result in almost the same significant minutes she saw early last season.
“She is creating opportunities, whether it is defensively, getting on the offensive boards, attacking the basket,” Auriemma stated. “[Qadence] adds a dimension that our other guards do not have. … We just have to find a way to take advantage of her talents more often.”
Even without graduate guard Katie Wagner DeGarmo, the Tigers gave the Huskies all they could handle early on. Graduate forward Olivia Hollenbeck largely contributed to Fort Hays State’s defensive efforts, accounting for all three of their blocks and a third of their nine steals.
Junior guard Brooke Loewe complemented Hollenbeck’s rejections with seven total rebounds and three steals. Offensively, all but one Tiger who checked in scored at least two points. No one crossed double figures, but junior Ellie Stearns delivered damage from downtown as all six of her points came on two triples.
Neither team could buy a bucket in the first two minutes, not even at the free throw line. Chen broke UConn’s dry spell 2:18 into the game with a layup in the lane; Bueckers followed suit with a contested jumper.
The Huskies grabbed a 10-point lead before Fort Hays State could get on the board. Once Loewe ended the scoring drought, however, the Tigers’ defense started clamping down. Fort Hays State forced four turnovers in the final four minutes and used their momentum to close the gap.
Connecticut, conversely, looked sluggish when they ran a four-newcomer rotation, whether it involved their transition offense or rebounding the ball. It only resulted in a four-point Huskies advantage after one quarter.
Bueckers took her first break of the game three minutes into the second quarter. Once the two-time Big East Player of the Year returned two minutes later, however, UConn operated like the No. 2 team in the country.
The Huskies held a seven-point advantage when Bueckers checked back in; they ballooned it to 25 come halftime. Connecticut held the Tigers scoreless over the final four minutes of the first half and did not commit a single turnover. The three-time Preseason Big East Player of the Year scored seven of her 19 first-half points on three buckets during the Huskies’ 17-0 run.
Bueckers’ perfect mark from the floor ended with a missed layup a minute into the second half. Even then, the redshirt senior continued facilitating the offense to a 20-point third quarter. UConn highlighted their high-flying attack with intense ball movement halfway through the period.
Bueckers set the play in motion with a behind-the-back pass to Strong on the perimeter. The two-time North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year tossed the rock over to Chen, who sent it Shade’s way for a corner three.
The 2021 National Player of the Year did not check out again until there were seven minutes left. Samuels, who provided the assist on Bueckers’ last bucket, helped the Huskies keep rolling on offense.
The Maryland native scored half of Connecticut’s final 20 points while impacting the game with hustle plays on both ends of the floor. First-year student Allie Ziebell added five points of her own as the Huskies won by 40.
Sunday afternoon served as a warmup for UConn. The real workout—the 31-game regular season—begins Thursday evening when the Huskies battle the Boston University Terriers. Tipoff from the XL Center is at 7 p.m. EST on SNY.
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