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Sweet 16 Preview: UConn vs. UCLA | ESPN, 7 p.m. ET

UConn women’s basketball is set to face UCLA in the opening game of the Albany Regional on Friday night, as the Huskies seek to advance to their 14th consecutive Elite Eight.

UCLA is a much better team than their record and seeding shows. The Bruins got off to a rocky start this season after losing seniors Jordin Canada and Monique Billings (both of whom were WNBA draft picks) from last year’s team. However, they figured things out around mid-January and have lost only three games since.

After a 2-4 start to conference play this season, the Bruins were one of just five Pac-12 teams that finished with a winning conference record in what is the strongest league in America. After closing out their season on a 10-2 run through conference play, including a win over Oregon, the Bruins lost to the Ducks in an overtime thriller in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament. The UCLA team that took Oregon to overtime is the team UConn needs to prepare for.

That starts with figuring out how to guard the Bruin’s trio of double-digit scorers in Michaela Onyenwere, Kennedy Burke, and Japreece Dean. Onyenwere, a six-foot sophomore forward, is an electric player who can score the ball in a variety of ways. She leads UCLA with an average of 18.6 points per game while also collecting over eight rebounds per game, including 13 percent of the Bruin’s own misses while on the floor. Her 137 offensive rebounds on the season ranks sixth in the nation, per Her Hoop Stats.

In the backcourt, Burke and Dean average 15.4 and 14.1 points per game, respectively. Burke is a versatile player, also averaging 6.3 boards and 2.3 assists per game. She’s also a menace on the defensive end, ranking in the top 10 percent for both steals and blocks per game. Dean is the Bruins’ floor general and dishes the assist on over 27 percent of her teammates’ field goals when on the court.

Collectively, UCLA does a phenomenal job of taking care of the ball and is one of just 13 teams in the country to turn over the ball on less than 15 percent of their possessions. But where the Bruins stand out the most is on the offensive glass, where they average over 17 rebounds per game (third in the nation), and collected 17 offensive boards in just the first half during Monday’s win over Maryland.

If there’s going to be trouble for the Huskies in this one, second chance opportunities for UCLA are most likely to be the culprit. In the opening two rounds of the tournament, UConn allowed both their opponents to exceed their season averages for offensive rebounds. The Huskies collected just 55 percent of their opponents misses in those games. If they don’t crash the defensive glass against a team who collects nearly 43 percent of their own misses on the season, the Bruins will certainly make them pay.

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Keys to the Game for UConn

Dominate on the glass: UCLA is excellent at coming down with the offensive rebound. The Huskies need to have a stronger presence on the defensive glass than they did in the opening rounds and limit the Bruins’ second chance opportunities. Surprisingly considering their dominance on the offensive end, UCLA is not a great defensive rebounding team, which should allow UConn to capitalize on second chance opportunities on the other end.

Take care of the ball: The Huskies were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball in their win over Buffalo, especially in the second half. The Bruins aren’t a particularly strong defensive team, but UConn still needs to minimize their errors on the offensive end.

Defending inside the arc: UCLA isn’t a great three-point shooting team and has scored just 20 percent of their points from beyond the arc this season. The key to slowing down the Bruins’ offense is defending them well from two-point range. In particular, it's essential that the Huskies contain Onyenwere, who is coming off a 30-point performance against Maryland.

Navigate the shooting slumps: The five-minute stretch without a field goal in the fourth quarter against Buffalo was among the ugliest UConn has looked all season. The shooting drought resembled a trend in both of the Huskies losses this year - when the shots stop falling they fail to run their offense, which exacerbates the problem. If UConn starts to struggle from the floor against UCLA, I would like to see them remain poised and continue to run their stuff — ideally getting the ball to Napheesa Collier in the paint to pull them out of the slump.


How to Watch

Where: Times Union Center, Albany, New York

When: 7 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN

Radio: UConn IMG Sports Network

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