One of the No. 7 UConn women’s basketball team’s key questions heading into the season involved how they would look without Paige Bueckers on the court.
Several players, from KK Arnold to Morgan Cheli, answered the call repeatedly throughout the Huskies’ first 15 games of the season. Nearly two years had passed since Bueckers had missed a contest entirely, however.
Despite not having their leading scorer because of an ankle injury, UConn more than handled that dilemma against the Xavier Musketeers. As had been the case across the first half of the season, the Huskies’ success primarily came from two players. Both of them just happened to be former No. 1 recruits.
Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong combined for 38 points in the Huskies’ 81-27 beatdown of the Musketeers at the XL Center Wednesday night.
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Fudd took Bueckers’ place as the five-tool guard in her best performance in over two years. Playing only 20 minutes, the Virginia native scored a season-high 23 points on 9-14 shooting, grabbed two rebounds and collected three steals. Fudd needed one half to match her previous season-high of 18 points.
Head coach Geno Auriemma pulled the 2021 Morgan Wootten High School Basketball Player of the Year 4.5 minutes into the contest. Fudd had not scored when she went to the bench; she made seven of her next eight shot attempts when she returned.
“When it is a little bit of everything, that is when she is playing her best,” Auriemma said about the three-time Gatorade Washington, D.C. Player of the Year postgame. “Took a little bit of time, but I thought she stepped up and had a great game.”
Strong, meanwhile, flirted with a double-double with 15 points and seven rebounds, yet her best play would not appear on the scoresheet. With four minutes until halftime, the four-time Big East Freshman of the Week swatted a pass that nearly sailed out of bounds. Strong officially picked up her fourth steal of the first half, though, with a marvelous behind-the-back pass to Kaitlyn Chen.
UConn permanently went up ahead by double figures in less than eight minutes. The lopsided outcome provided the perfect opportunity for the Huskies’ five bench players to pick up significant minutes.
First-year student Allie Ziebell capitalized on those minutes best. The Wisconsin native finished off a series of wild passes for a last-second jumper right before the first-half buzzer. It boosted Ziebell’s confidence, allowing her to provide outside shooting with five second-half triples for a career-high 17 points.
Fudd watched one preseason practice from the 6-foot-0 guard and instantly thought she could shoot better from downtown than she could. Wednesday’s outing, especially with how often her teammates found her, further impressed the 2022 Big East All-Freshman Team guard.
“She is a very consistent shooter,” Fudd explained about Ziebell postgame. “When she gets going, she is on fire. You are not going to be able to stop her.”
No one could contain Jana El Alfy, who finished with 11 points on 4-5 shooting, three rebounds and three assists, either. Arnold and Cheli each provided intense defense off the bench with four combined steals and four total boards.
Collectively, the Huskies froze the Musketeers on a chilly evening in Connecticut’s state capital. Over half of Connecticut’s 81 points—42, precisely—came on 32 Xavier turnovers and they allowed a season-low nine field goals on 38 attempts.
Only junior guard Irune Orio scored more than five points and made more than one field goal for the Musketeers’ offense. She finished with a team-best 10 points and was one of two Xavier players with multiple steals.
First-year guard Meri Kanerva also had two takeaways. All three of her points came just 10 seconds after the opening tip. That three-pointer accounted for half of the Musketeers’ six points in the first quarter, however. The Huskies forced as many turnovers as points they scored in the paint.
Both of Connecticut’s available No. 1 recruits guided that onslaught. Ashlynn Shade got the Huskies on the board first; Fudd and Strong scored 15 of their next 19 points. Whether a defender guarded them or not, each east coast native regularly converted when they had a quality look at the basket.
Those two carried that trend into the second quarter, accounting for every point of their 9-0 run over the first 3:15. Daniela Lopez ended Xavier’s scoring drought with the team’s second three-pointer of the game; it ended up being their last field goal of the first half.
UConn consistently capitalized on the Musketeers’ sloppy play, turning another 10 giveaways into 14 of their 24 points in the period. Even with their bench playing the final three minutes of the half, the Huskies held Xavier to a single free throw.
Orio scored more points in 2.5 minutes of the third quarter (five) than the Musketeers did as a team in the second (four). Similar to how the game started, the Spanish native buried a triple less than 30 seconds into the second half. El Alfy followed that up with a layup under the basket.
It was just the start of the Egyptian native’s third-quarter takeover; she subsequently made two more layups and three free throws. The 5-foot-11 guard collected her final points following El Alfy’s second field goal of the period.
Ziebell made five of the Huskies’ next six shots from downtown. The first two came on wide-open looks on back-to-back possessions that had UConn flirting with a 50-point advantage. Arnold’s pass to the 6-foot-5 center under the basket made that a reality.
Both Wisconsin natives combined for four of the Huskies’ five buckets on six attempts and 12 of their 14 points in the final frame. Their three-point prowess helped Connecticut match their largest margin of victory in a game this season at 54 points.
The Huskies go on the road again for a pivotal rematch with the Georgetown Hoyas. Tip-off from the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., on Saturday afternoon is at 4 p.m. on SNY.
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