Going into the season, most of the anticipation around the No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team involved their deep backcourt. Simultaneously, Aaliyah Edwards’ departure created concerns about a young frontcourt with at most two experienced forwards.
Facing an Oregon State Beavers program with a similar size setup, the Huskies’ three-person frontcourt wiped away some of those worries.
Ice Brady, Sarah Strong and Jana El Alfy accounted for over 40% of Connecticut’s offense and a notable portion of their defense. Their efforts, combined with a 2.78 assist-to-turnover ratio, helped the Huskies best the Beavers 71-52 in the Baha Mar Women’s Championship Semifinals.
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Strong started building her case for a fourth consecutive Big East Freshman of the Week award Monday night. The North Carolina native collected six steals and brought in eight rebounds in 23 minutes. What Strong did on the defensive end complemented her 13 points on 5-10 shooting.
El Alfy, meanwhile, bounced back from consecutive three-point outings. Coming off the bench, the redshirt freshman made six of her 11 shots for 12 points. After landing just five total buckets in her last three contests, the 6-foot-5 center found comfort as a pivotal scoring machine in the post.
Yet Brady was closer to a double-double than El Alfy was. The San Diego native snagged six rebounds, four of which came in the first quarter, and rejected two shots to go along with her five points.
None of them scored as much as preseason All-American Paige Bueckers did, however. In a game-high 29 minutes, Bueckers buried nine of her 13 buckets for 23 points and dished out six assists.
The Minnesota native’s presence provided a flow UConn used for their distributive offense throughout the evening. Although the Huskies made less than 46% of their shots for the third straight game, they had a season-low three buckets without an assist. On the other side of the ball, Connecticut’s stout defense forced 24 turnovers and turned them into 24 points.
Sophomore guard KK Arnold contributed toward both categories. While she did not score, the Germantown, Wisconsin, native recorded five assists and three steals. Redshirt junior Azzi Fudd had as many dimes as Arnold while burying her first triple of the season for all three of her points.
Oregon State found the most success from that part of their game at the Baha Mar Convention, Arts & Entertainment Center. The Beavers entered the Bahamas with only a 19% clip from behind the arc; they made nine triples for almost half of their points.
Senior guard AJ Marotte spearheaded that attack with three buckets from downtown and a team-high 17 points. Marotte, who entered averaging 8.4 points per game, was also one of four Oregon State players with at least four boards in the Bahamas.
Kelsey Rees, Sela Heide and Catar Ferreira, all of them seniors, each also crashed the glass. Rees finished three rebounds shy of a double-double while dropping 10 points. Heide snagged five rebounds and swatted two shots while Ferreira brought in four.
The Huskies hauled in that many boards before the Beavers scored nearly four minutes into the event’s second semifinal. The Austin, Texas, native’s jumper also broke UConn’s early dry spell as it sparked an 8-0 run in a matter of 54 seconds.
Marotte ended that run with a floater. Ahead 12-7 following a Ferreira three-pointer, the Huskies turned on the jets over the period’s final three minutes. Bueckers and El Alfy led Connecticut on a 10-0 run that forced an Oregon State timeout with 30 seconds left in the frame.
The Husky defense had caused five turnovers by the end of the first quarter; they tightened their forceful grip throughout the second. Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen drew an offensive foul and pickpocketed Shuler over the first three minutes of the period. UConn turned the Beavers’ next two giveaways into four points.
Ally Schimel ended the Huskies’ run with a triple 4.5 minutes into the quarter. A three-point barrage quickly ensued from there; neither team made a two-pointer for the rest of the first half.
Strong sunk her own triple on the ensuing possession. Two Oregon State three-pointers sandwiched back-to-back Allie Ziebell buckets from downtown. Rees, left all alone near the top of the key, capped off the long-range frenzy with 44 seconds remaining.
Ziebell scored the team’s last eight points of that half. Despite all 12 of the Beavers’ points in the second quarter coming from three-point land, Connecticut held a 42-19 halftime advantage.
Two former No. 1 recruits, Bueckers and Strong, landed jumpers from around the same area to start the second half. The Huskies’ next three buckets came in a burst. El Alfy landed a floater off a turnover with 5.5 minutes remaining in the frame.
Similar to the first half, Strong countered Schimel’s triple 19 seconds later. Arnold then immediately intercepted the inbounds pass and fed it to Bueckers, who landed the bunny from the cylinder.
UConn made just one more shot, an El Alfy layup, in that period. All the while, Oregon State’s offense started biting into their nearly 30-point deficit. Shuler made a turnaround jumper and Heide scored all four of her points as the Beavers ended the third quarter on a 6-2 run.
Bueckers put the Huskies’ offensive woes to rest when she scored off a turnover 90 seconds into the final frame. 57 seconds later, the two-time Big East Player of the Year found Fudd on the wing. The 2022 Big East All-Freshman Team guard quickly released the ball and buried the bucket for her first three of the year.
The UConn-majority crowd roared once Fudd’s shot fell. Oregon State ultimately scored the game’s last nine points, but the Huskies secured their first victory over their opponent since the 2016 Final Four.
Connecticut has a day off before battling the No. 18 Ole Miss Rebels in Wednesday’s Baha Mar Women’s Championship game. Tip-off for the Huskies’ second tilt against a ranked opponent is at 7:30 p.m. on FloHoops and the UConn Sports Network.
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