Even with women’s college basketball’s fiercest rivalry delivering once again, both teams felt a bit of regret. The No. 5 UConn women’s basketball team shot 24-52 (46.1%) on two-pointers but missed multiple wide-open layups. The No. 19 Tennessee Lady Volunteers, meanwhile, went a less-than-ideal 9-15 from the charity stripe.
But wasted opportunities will haunt the Huskies more. UConn missed 16 layups and shot 5-20 from downtown in their 80-76 defeat to the Lady Volunteers at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
Even with their misses, UConn possessed a fragile two-point lead after one half. Once redshirt senior Paige Bueckers committed her third foul two minutes into the third quarter, however, Tennessee shattered the Huskies’ slim advantage.
The Lady Volunteers went on a 13-0 run over three minutes, giving them their largest lead of the evening at nine points. With the crowd behind them, Tennessee’s quick attack and pesky defense swiftly made the game seem well out of reach.
Yet there is a reason the Basketball Hall of Fame named Bueckers a Nancy Lieberman Award finalist Monday. The 6-foot-0 guard checked back in after the third-quarter media timeout and mainly kept Connecticut calm amidst the growing pressure from the environment.
Bueckers, who finished with 14 points and eight assists, never checked out when she re-entered. The 2021 National Player of the Year’s only three-pointer of the second half with 2:07 left tied the game up at 74. But the Lady Volunteers had the tougher edge in the end; former Miami Hurricane Zee Spearman answered on the other end. Spearman’s next bucket, a tough layup right before the shot clock expired, all but secured Tennessee’s first win over the Huskies since 2007.
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UConn missed a handful of bunnies, but that does not necessarily mean they missed every layup. All but two of three-time Big East Player of the Week Sarah Strong’s 18 points came from that specific type of shot. Strong’s consistent presence in the paint simplified her task to land layups, and it also allowed her to grab nine rebounds.
No other Husky grabbed more than four, however. With only two true forwards and a wing available—Ice Brady is week-to-week with a shoulder injury—Connecticut took a beating on the glass. The Lady Volunteers outrebounded the Huskies 46-34, the -12 disadvantage being their worst of the season.
It was not all negative for UConn in their third trip to Knoxville since 2020. The Huskies had seven more assists (20-13), five more steals (10-5) and six more bench points (26-20) than Tennessee.
KK Arnold and Aubrey Griffin matched the Lady Volunteers by themselves off the bench. Griffin, in only her fifth game back from a torn ACL, again became Connecticut’s X-factor with nine points and four rebounds. While not perfect from the floor, Arnold shot 5-9 and regularly breezed past her defenders for 11 points.
“I thought she was the most competitive player for UConn tonight,” head coach Geno Auriemma said about the Wisconsin native postgame.
Arnold’s speed and pesky aggression allowed the Huskies to stay close with Tennessee. Graduate guard Azzi Fudd helped out in that department too. Fudd scored five points in each half, but she complemented that with three defensive rebounds and three steals.
The Virginia native’s defense played a role in holding the Lady Volunteers below 85 points for their fifth straight game. But Tennessee’s balanced attack still struck. Even with Lady Volunteers head coach Kim Caldwell’s consistent substitutions, four different starters crossed double figures.
The junior in Spearman, who played pivotal basketball in the second half, led the way. Nine of the 6-foot-4 forward’s team-leading 16 points and five of her seven rebounds came over the final 20 minutes. Guards Talaysia Cooper and Samara Spencer had just as many points in the second half.
Cooper, the Lady Volunteers’ leading scorer, dropped 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dealt out four assists. Spencer picked up 14 while forcing a team-best two steals. Fifth-year guard Jewel Spear rounded out Tennessee’s prolific scorers with 12 points on 5-10 shooting with four boards to boot.
Spear landed the game’s second floater 42 seconds after Ruby Whitehorn (seven points, seven rebounds) got the Lady Volunteers on the board. Bueckers and Strong quickly answered to give Connecticut an early 5-4 edge.
The 6-foot-2 forward put the Huskies ahead again, this time with the score reading 13-12, after making two free throws. UConn had two prime opportunities to immediately extend that advantage with back-to-back steals on Tennessee’s side of the floor.
Despite squandering both of those opportunities, the Huskies landed three layups over a two-minute window and grabbed a 19-17 advantage after one quarter. Connecticut never trailed in the second period, even with both teams’ number of misses piling up.
Following Arnold’s lone three-pointer of the night, the Huskies’ frontcourt peppered the paint. Strong, Griffin and Jana El Alfy all made at least one layup as UConn took their largest lead of the night at seven points.
The Huskies went up by that many points on two separate occasions in the quarter; the Lady Volunteers pulled within two both times. Part of that had to do with Connecticut missing several layups, but Tennessee utilized their rapid pace of play.
The Huskies had a two-point halftime lead and were ahead by two possessions for the first two minutes of the third quarter. Once the Minnesota native committed her third foul, though, momentum completely flipped.
Cooper’s third-chance layup sparked a 13-0 Lady Volunteers run, the largest UConn had given up all season, over three minutes. But the North Carolina native’s tip-in layup sparked an immediate response from the Huskies. A 9-2 UConn run quieted the Thompson-Boling Arena crowd and made it a two-point game.
That crowd did not stay silent for long, though. Spencer’s three-pointer gave the Lady Volunteers a five-point lead heading into the final frame. The Huskies did not get any closer until Bueckers and Strong landed layups on consecutive possessions halfway through the quarter.
Tennessee almost always had an answer, however, until the McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVP broke up a pass and barely stayed inbounds. Chen subsequently tied the game at 69.
Connecticut again leveled the contest after the two-time Big East Player of the Year buried a clutch three-pointer over a minute later. The Lady Volunteers responded on the other end, and with some late clock management, held on for their 10th win in the all-time series.
The Huskies next travel to another hostile road environment when they take on the Providence Friars inside Amica Mutual Pavilion. Tip-off from Rhode Island’s capital is at 12 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network.
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