Sarah Strong scored points in just two quarters on Tuesday night. Hardly anyone could make a shot during Strong’s first scoreless frame.
The final frame, her other scoreless quarter, was a different story. Sure, the three-time Big East Freshman of the Week did not take a shot in that period. She was still on the floor when the No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team started their 20-0 run against the Holy Cross Crusaders.
As for the other two quarters, Strong scored 22 points at a 9-10 clip with two triples in each period. The North Carolina native complemented that with seven rebounds in UConn’s 88-52 victory over the Crusaders at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
“She seems to know what we need at what moment,” head coach Geno Auriemma said about Strong postgame. “When she gets comfortable, she thinks that any shot she takes is going in.”
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It is a fair assumption to make when one shoots 9-12 from the field and 4-5 from downtown. Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen nearly matched the three-time Big East Freshman of the Week’s intensity back on United States soil.
After scoring just four total points in the Bahamas, Chen crossed double figures for the first time in almost two weeks with 14. Tuesday night could have very well been the graduate guard’s breakout game at UConn; she matched her season-high of seven assists and landed three triples.
“When she came here, she did not come here with the reputation of being an above-average three-point shooter,” Auriemma explained. “If we have Azzi [Fudd] out there and we have Paige [Bueckers] out there and we have Kaitlyn [Chen] out there, there is only so many defenders to go around. I think she is in a really good spot.”
Even with multiple defenders constantly on her, redshirt senior Paige Bueckers put herself on triple-double watch. Bueckers dropped 11 points despite shooting 4-9, collected seven defensive rebounds and recorded five assists.
First-year guard Morgan Cheli and sophomore guard KK Arnold provided a notable boost off the bench the same way Azzi Fudd did last Wednesday. Cheli only snagged one rebound, but she recorded her first-career steal and dropped a personal-best eight points. Arnold also picked up eight points despite not making a triple and had more rebounds than assists.
Holy Cross battled with the Huskies for most of the first half. Junior guard Simone Foreman scored all eight of her points in those 20 minutes, doing so at a 3-4 mark from the floor. Senior forward Lindsay Berger controlled the second half with a rebound on each end of the floor and eight of her 12 points coming in the final two quarters.
Kaitlyn Flanagan, meanwhile, had a balanced attack across both halves, with six in the first and four in the second. Fellow junior Meg Cahalan collected as many assists as Flanagan did, though she hauled in a team-high seven rebounds.
All four aforementioned Crusaders combined for 14 of the team’s 20 made field goals, which only helped them shoot 40.8% from the floor. Four of Connecticut’s five starters combined for that many buckets, and the whole team made 53.8% of their attempts.
It did not look like the Huskies would reach that number early on, however. UConn made just one of their next seven shots following Chen’s triple 19 seconds into the contest. Between their 4-15 mark from the floor and Holy Cross’ nine defensive rebounds, the Huskies looked discombobulated.
Connecticut led 11-10 after the first quarter; they responded by making each of their first five attempts in the second. Bueckers started the avalanche with a three near the Crusaders’ bench for her lone points of the half. Strong kept it rolling, scoring 10 straight points for the Huskies at one point and stretching their advantage to double digits.
Yet Holy Cross stuck around inside a sold-out Gampel Pavilion. The Crusaders cut their 12-point deficit in half with a 10-4 run over the final 3.5 minutes. UConn still held a 33-27 edge at halftime, but no team had scored that many points in the first half during the month of November.
Holy Cross kept their momentum going on Berger’s long two-pointer immediately following the intermission. After Flanagan’s long-range bucket 37 seconds later, however, the Huskies put themselves ahead by double figures for good.
Connecticut spent the majority of their second double-digit run attacking the paint until the Crusaders called their first timeout. Fudd buried a triple following the stoppage, paving the way for Arnold and Strong to take over. Both Freshman of the Week award winners scored once off a sensational pass from Bueckers and accounted for the Huskies’ last 11 points of the third quarter.
UConn truly separated themselves from Holy Cross throughout the final frame with a 70% mark from the floor. Every available Husky checked into the game; four of the seven who scored dropped six points. Connecticut’s defense held the Crusaders to only 13 in that period, which helped them handle their second Patriot League opponent this season.
The difference between both halves was as stark as a Connecticut winter and a California summer. The Huskies shot just 41.9% from the field and had as many rebounds as Holy Cross did, but Auriemma did not like their effort. Following halftime, however, UConn shot 22-34 with eight triples and a 30-point edge over the Crusaders while forcing 11 turnovers.
Chen highlighted that change.
“We came out with a whole different mindset [staying locked in and being ready to attack the other team] in the second half,” the three-time Ivy League Tournament champion commented. “That is the mindset that we need to have going into every single game and every half that we play.”
The Huskies’ non-conference slate significantly warms up with four ranked opponents over their next five games. That starts Saturday, when Connecticut heads down to the Barclays Center to face the No. 22 Louisville Cardinals. Tip-off in the second game of the Women’s Champions Classic is at 9 p.m. on FOX.
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