With 55 seconds remaining until halftime, redshirt senior Paige Bueckers took her ninth shot of the game from outside of the lane. Bueckers drew a shooting foul right as the ball left her hands; all she had to do was watch as the shot fell through.
The sold-out Gampel Pavilion crowd erupted right as the basket went into the hoop. Moments later, the two-time Big East Player of the Year lifted her hands and hyped up the student section.
It was reminiscent of when Bueckers pumped up the student section during the second round of the NCAA Tournament last spring and in 2022. The No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team won both of those March Madness games by less than 10 points.
Sunday afternoon’s clash with the South Florida Bulls was not particularly close.
The two-time WBCA All-American dropped a game-high 22 points at a 9-10 clip as the Huskies buried the Bulls 86-49. 19 of Bueckers’ and eight of her field goals came in what head coach Geno Auriemma described as an aggressive first half.
“We wanted to get some momentum going with her and Sarah [Strong],” Auriemma said about Bueckers. “I felt, in past years, that I had to do that. But this year, she takes that on her own; puts it on her own shoulders. She is attacking the basket way more often.”
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South Florida entered Storrs with a No. 1 preseason ranking in the American Athletic Conference. UConn treated the Bulls like any AAC foe they faced during their seven seasons in the league, specifically down low.
The Huskies scored 58 of their 86 points in the paint and outrebounded USF 35-27. Each team rejected a shot, but Connecticut snuffed out possessions more often with a 29-15 edge on the defensive glass. Overall, the Huskies forced 14 turnovers and recorded 20 assists on their 38 field goals.
Graduate guard Kaitlyn Chen and first-year forward Sarah Strong each recorded at least three. Chen dished out seven dimes, six in the first half, and scored eight points in her first official game in Storrs since 2022.
Strong, meanwhile, contributed everywhere on the floor. The McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVP picked up 13 points on 5-8 shooting and hauled in seven rebounds on top of her four assists. Redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy also grabbed seven boards, three of which came on the offensive end.
Both forwards made multiple shots in the first half before sophomore guard Ashlynn Shade attempted her second, a buzzer-beating three-pointer before halftime. It sparked Shade to a 15-point, two-rebound and two-steal performance.
While she finished second in scoring, what the reigning Big East Freshman of the Year did defensively significantly helped UConn clamp down the Bulls.
“That is who we want Ashlynn [Shade] to be every single night,” Bueckers commented postgame. “She was flying around being everywhere tonight. It was like [having] seven Ashlynn’s out on the court.”
Like the Huskies, South Florida had two players who attempted 10+ shots. Missouri transfer Mama Dembele made five of her game-high 14 attempts for 14 points. The graduate guard also led the Bulls with five assists, both of their steals and two threes. Fellow graduate guard Sammie Puisis landed USF’s other two from downtown while scoring 10 points off the bench.
Redshirt freshman Ice Brady scored four points in Thursday’s season opener. She matched that mark on two layups less than 90 seconds into the game. Bueckers’ corner three on Connecticut’s ensuing possession forced a quick Bulls’ timeout.
That stoppage did not slow down the Minnesota native, but two fouls 10 seconds apart did. While the latter of the two ultimately went to Chen, those penalties opened the door for South Florida’s offense.
Back-to-back triples with less than 150 seconds left in the opening frame pulled the Bulls within four points. Connecticut stretched that advantage back to 10 in the second quarter behind El Alfy’s skyhook and Bueckers’ shot clock-beating floater.
It was not until the three-time Preseason Big East Player of the Year’s layup with four minutes left that the Huskies created some separation. First-year student Morgan Cheli followed it with a corner three, and Chen went end-to-end as the Bulls called their second timeout.
Those were the first three of UConn’s seven straight makes to end the period. Shade buried the last of those shots with a corner three at the horn, giving the Huskies a 43-25 halftime advantage.
That buzzer-beater got the six-time Big East Freshman of the Week on the board, but it also provided a second-half spark. No player shot more often than Shade did throughout the final two quarters. All of the 2022 Indiana Girls Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year’s shots came from inside the perimeter.
Shade was one of five underclassmen who scored 27 of Connecticut’s 30 third-quarter points. The second jumper the Noblesville native made in that frame, which came with 5.5 minutes left, forced the Bulls to burn their last timeout.
Bueckers again sat out the entire fourth quarter. No player who scored in the period had more than three points, but El Alfy and sophomore guard KK Arnold each grabbed at least four rebounds. Regardless of who was on the court, the Huskies kept applying intense pressure en route to their 34th all-time victory over USF.
UConn scored as many points (43) and made as many field goals (19) in the second half as they did in the first. The way the Huskies’ offense moved in those final two quarters, however, gave the 40th-year head coach much to like.
“We went into halftime on a little bit of a run and when we came out, we added to it. … That is what good teams do. They do not come out flat in the second half,” Auriemma explained. “We want to keep that process.”
Maintaining it will be key as Connecticut goes to Greensboro for a neutral-site fight with the No. 15 North Carolina Tar Heels. Tip-off on Friday is at 6 p.m. EST on ESPN2.
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