The No. 6 UConn women’s basketball team matched a season low with just 14 three-point tries at Carnesecca Arena Wednesday night. When they last attempted that few long-range shots on November 27, they bested the then-No. 18 Ole Miss Rebels by only 13 points.
Although it was not their best performance, Connecticut won more comfortably against the St. John’s Red Storm. The Huskies shot 25-37 from inside the arc and outscored the Red Storm 38-18 in the paint in a 71-45 rout in Queens.
Even though UConn committed 13 turnovers, all but one player scored against the St. John’s defense. It removed some serious pressure off redshirt senior Paige Bueckers’ hands following her two-game hiatus.
“We have a lot of people who can handle the ball, who can make plays on our team … We share that responsibility really well knowing that no one person is going to dominate the ball,” the two-time Big East Player of the Year commented postgame. “It is definitely easier for the team when you have plenty of people who can handle the rock like that.”
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Bueckers also said she felt fine in her first game in 10 days. She supported that claim with 12 points on 4-7 shooting and five rebounds. Only Azzi Fudd took more shots than the Minnesota native did at 11. Although she did not earn her third straight 20-piece, Fudd led the team with 13 points in 25 minutes.
Both head coach Geno Auriemma and Bueckers have witnessed the same change in the graduate guard over the past three games. The 2021 National Player of the Year highlighted its long-term benefits.
“It will do strides for our team in terms of her being aggressive,” Bueckers stated about Fudd. “We will be a much better team if she continues to play this way.”
Despite tying their season high in points allowed, St. John’s defense did what no team in college basketball had previously done. Six-time Big East Freshman of the Week Sarah Strong scored just six points, her first single-digit game of her career. While contained offensively, the North Carolina native still collected five rebounds and five assists.
Redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy took over in the post. El Alfy scored eight points on 4-5 shooting, snagged six rebounds and rejected a shot. Wednesday marked the third time in five games the 6-foot-5 center made four field goals, yet she still faces a long road ahead.
“There is a lot of growing that she has to do. There is a lot of learning that she has to do,” Auriemma said about El Alfy afterward. “As we try to simplify things for her, she is going to keep getting better...there is nobody else on our team like her.”
The two-time WBCA All-American’s return again relegated Ashlynn Shade to the bench. Despite the demotion, Shade buried two triples, scored 10 points and had two steals. KK Arnold and Morgan Cheli provided the Huskies with further depth. Arnold’s blazing speed and assertive aggression helped her score six points, collect four assists and pick up two steals. Cheli scored seven points at a 3-4 clip and hauled in four rebounds.
Both guards contributed to a UConn defense that limited the Red Storm to season lows in points (45) and field goals made (17). Junior guard Skye Owen’s absence created an opportunity that first-year student Ariel Little capitalized on. Although nobody replaced Owen in the starting lineup, Little became a pivotal bench piece with eight points three rebounds and three assists.
Graduate guard Ber’Nyah Mayo, who led St. John’s with 10 points, accounted for the team’s other two dimes. Mayo also got the Red Storm on the board nearly three minutes into the game with a breakaway floater. The person she stole the ball from, Bueckers, began the Huskies’ barrage inside the perimeter with a jumper two minutes earlier, however.
Not even a Johnnies timeout after El Alfy’s answer to the former UMass-Amherst Minutewoman could stop the Husky onslaught down low. Connecticut’s next 14 points either came at the free throw stripe or on a layup.
The Huskies did not make a three-pointer until right before the end of the first quarter. Kaitlyn Chen tossed a pass from the top of the key over to Strong as time wound down. The six-time Big East Freshman of the Week immediately fired the ball over to Shade, who buried the corner triple.
Both offenses struggled shooting the ball in the second quarter; neither team shot better than 40% in the frame. Most of the Red Storm’s buckets, outside of Phoenix Gedeon’s layup with 75 seconds until halftime, came in spurts. UConn, meanwhile, only converted consecutive attempts on one occasion.
Tight defenses highlighted the period. It was not necessarily in the transition game where they thrived; both schools combined for one steal in 10 minutes. The way each Big East charter school infiltrated the paint instead defined the physical frame. St. John’s snagged seven rebounds while the Huskies grabbed eight.
Each program scored 11 points in that quarter. The Red Storm pulled within that many points on consecutive layups a minute into the third; it was the closest they ever got. Connecticut subsequently separated from the Johnnies with a 12-2 run over a five-minute window.
Bueckers pulled within less than 10 points of the 2,000-career point mark in that span behind three jumpers around the post. The Huskies subsequently went back to converting layups, which included a Shade scoop-and-score, for the rest of the quarter. Arnold capped the period off with a drive to the lane in the waning seconds.
UConn doubled their three-point field goal totals on their first two attempts of the final frame. The Red Storm landed three of their own, but the Huskies secured their fourth victory by 26+ points in their last five games.
Connecticut returns to the Nutmeg State for a two-game homestand at Gampel Pavilion when they host the Seton Hall Pirates Sunday. Tip-off from Storrs is at 1 p.m. on SNY.
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