Another instant classic between the No. 4 UConn women’s basketball team and the No. 7 USC Trojans came down to the final five seconds.
Sophomore sensation JuJu Watkins had just committed her fourth foul trying to defend four-time Big East Freshman of the Week Sarah Strong’s shot. With Connecticut trailing 72-69, Strong had a chance to equalize the contest.
The North Carolina native only made one of her three free throw attempts. Her first went through the hoop; her second bounced off the back of the rim. Strong’s third try also missed but ricocheted into redshirt senior Paige Bueckers’ arms. Bueckers quickly fired a pass to the Class of 2024 No. 1 recruit, who nearly lost possession of the ball.
Strong immediately threw up a half-court prayer, but to the dismay of a sold-out XL Center crowd, it hit the right side of the backboard. The buzzer sounded immediately afterward, solidifying the Huskies’ 72-70 home defeat to the Trojans.
“Nobody is more disappointed than she is right now in that moment,” head coach Geno Auriemma said postgame about the McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVP’s final five seconds. “But I would put her in that moment in every single game for the rest of the season and have confidence that she is going to come through.”
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The rematch of last year’s Elite Eight can be defined beyond that moment, however.
For 22.5 minutes, USC looked like the better program. The Trojans outscored, outrebounded and outhustled UConn in their gym. Over the final 15, though, the Huskies had the upper hand as they completed an 18-point comeback.
Strong and Bueckers spearheaded that second-half rally. The two-time Big East Player of the Year shot an uncharacteristic 3-10 from the floor in the first half. She went 6-12 in the second and scored 15 of her 22 points.
The one-time Big East Player of the Week, meanwhile, nearly recorded a double-double over the final 20 minutes with 13 points and nine boards. Strong had a double-double over the entire game, though, as she dropped 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Safe to say her impact went well beyond how the contest ended.
“That game was not won or lost with those three free throws,” Bueckers stated. “Sarah [Strong] was a huge part of that second-half comeback and the reason we were even in the game.”
So was the role that both of Connecticut’s point guards, who each had two assists, played. Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen scored three second-half points, but that one triple helped carry over the Huskies’ momentum from the third quarter to the final frame. Sophomore KK Arnold, meanwhile, temporarily derailed the Southern California locomotive.
“She brings a different intensity off the bench,” the two-time WBCA Coaches’ All-American commented about Arnold. “The game turned around when she got in the game with her ball pressure.”
Sophomore guard Ashlynn Shade brought her own intimidation on defense. Although she was not as efficient from the floor as she was four days ago, Shade racked up four steals to complement her nine points.
What Saturday night’s contest essentially came down to is what occurred behind the arc.
“In these games, if we do not make more threes than the other team, it is going to be really hard for us to win,” the 40th-year head coach explained bluntly.
UConn shot 6-23 from downtown after making a program-record 20 against the Iowa State Cyclones on Tuesday. The Trojans, meanwhile, made a season-high 56.3% of their shots from long range. Watkins and Kennedy Smith had six of the team’s nine triples, with both guards making three apiece. Three-pointers accounted for all nine of Smith’s points in her fifth career game.
The Class of 2023’s No. 1 recruit, meanwhile, dropped a game-high 25 points, grabbed six rebounds and collected five assists. Graduate forward Kiki Iriafen also flirted with a triple-double after recording 16 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
Two of Iriafen’s three offensive rebounds set up the first of three runs between both championship-winning programs. USC started the game on a 9-0 run; the Huskies countered with a 10-2 burst. Watkins’ long two subsequently sparked a 7-0 run from the Trojans that lasted two minutes.
Southern California had already made three triples when the first quarter ended; they buried four more in the second. Each shot from downtown, which came from four different Trojan guards, kept the team ahead by double figures. Shade kept UConn within striking distance, but not even she could slow down USC’s scorching offense.
The Trojans held a 13-point halftime lead and stretched it to 18 in 59 seconds. Bueckers and Strong then took over, scoring the Huskies’ first eight points of the second half. Southern California still made shots, but they came at a slower pace with Arnold and Morgan Cheli in the game.
A Trojans’ shot clock violation gave Connecticut the spark they needed. The Huskies’ leader in rebounds converted that giveaway into a turnaround jumper. Shade subsequently turned Strong’s third block into a wide-open triple that pulled UConn within single digits.
Bueckers buried her own three-pointer off a turnover immediately following USC’s first timeout. The Trojans’ lead then hovered around six points for the next six minutes.
That trend continued until Cheli landed a trey from the top of the key that cut Connecticut’s deficit in half in the final frame. It sparked the Huskies’ 7-0 run that gave them their only lead of the night with 4:34 left.
The Pac-12 Freshman of the Year responded to Strong’s go-ahead basket with a traditional three-point play. Bueckers tied the game again at 67, but Rayah Marshall put the Trojans ahead for good with 84 seconds left. While Connecticut kept it at a one-possession game, Southern California did enough to earn their first-ever win in the all-time series.
Auriemma’s long-awaited Christmas break has arrived. When it ends eight days later, the Huskies resume Big East play in Hartford versus the Providence Friars. Tip-off on Sunday, December 29, is at 1:30 p.m. on SNY.
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