When graduate guard Kaitlyn Chen last scored 10+ points, the No. 6 UConn women’s basketball team had not yet begun Big East play. That occurred on December 12, when Connecticut entered South Bend, Indiana, undefeated and ranked second in the country.
Chen did not score a point but dished out seven assists when she first faced the Villanova Wildcats back on January 5th. The Wildcats, winners of three of their last four, saw a completely different player when they entered Gampel Pavilion Wednesday night.
The former Princeton Tiger looked confident from the start, dropping a season-high 17 points at an efficient 7-8 clip. Chen was one of three Huskies with at least that many points in a 100-57 clobbering of Villanova.
“There is no question in my mind of what she is capable of doing. Tonight was an example of it,” head coach Geno Auriemma said about the 2023 Ivy League Player of the Year postgame. “Seeing the ball go in today, that was just great. … She was really, really good in a lot of ways.”
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For one night, Chen took Azzi Fudd’s (nine points, 4-9 from the floor) spot as one-third of UConn’s “big three.” The other two members, redshirt senior Paige Bueckers and first-year student Sarah Strong, remained in their roles as the primary scorers.
Bueckers, three days removed from scoring her 2,000th career point in the same building, had a legitimate shot at obtaining her first career triple-double. The Minnesota native shot 8-11 from the floor and 3-3 from downtown for 21 points in 26 minutes. Bueckers also snagged eight rebounds, recorded nine assists and had three steals.
Strong made as many field goals as the 6-foot-0 guard did while missing one less shot attempt. The 6-foot-2 forward led all players with 22 points, complimenting her scoring prowess with four rebounds and five dimes. Even then, having a forward like Strong further diversifies the Huskies’ offensive approach.
“Sarah [Strong] can score on anybody one-on-one, so it causes people to have to double her, which then leaves somebody else open,” Bueckers commented about the seven-time Big East Player of the Week afterward. “We like to play inside and out, so having that presence there is huge.”
Connecticut had as many assists as they had points off the bench. Stud sophomores KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade accounted for 18 of those 26 bench points. Despite having just one steal, Arnold shined elsewhere with 11 points at a 4-5 mark with three rebounds and two assists. Shade had as many rebounds in as many minutes (19) with seven points to boot.
Auriemma noted how the team did not take a “bad shot” in the first half. Looking at the larger picture rather than the final score, the 11-time national champion found one area fueling the Huskies’ recent offensive surge.
“We scored a lot of points because the ball went in, and the ball went in because we made good decisions with the ball,” Auriemma simply stated. “We are making a lot of great decisions right now, and that is going to pay off.”
Villanova, who scored the most points against UConn in Big East play, had something other conference opponents did not: their own three-headed attack. Leading scorer Jasmine Bascoe did not score in the first quarter but still finished close to her season average with 15 points on 6-13 shooting.
Maddie Burke and Maddie Webber, meanwhile, had 11 points apiece. Burke flirted with a double-double as she also snagged seven rebounds; Webber took the most shots on the team at 17.
Denae Carter (seven points, three rebounds) scored the Wildcats’ first points on a layup, but the onslaught started immediately afterward. The Huskies countered with a 12-0 run in less than three minutes that forced a quick Villanova timeout.
The stoppage worked in Wildcats head coach Denise Dillon’s favor. Villanova made each of their next three shot attempts and pulled within three points. Connecticut responded to that adversity with another 10-0 run, but the most serious damage came in the frame’s final moments.
Strong received Bueckers’ slick behind-the-back pass and released a long-range jumper that bounced off the top of the rim. Arnold promptly grabbed the miss and hastily landed a floater right as the buzzer sounded.
Villanova strung together another offensive spurt in the second quarter when they made four straight field goals in 94 seconds. Fudd swiftly responded with a layup under the basket and the North Carolina native subsequently ended the Wildcats’ hot stretch with a one-handed block.
Yet it was not until the two-time Big East Player of the Year’s four-point play that the Huskies truly broke away. Bueckers immediately capitalized on the court taking her defender’s ankles with a three-point shot halfway through the period. Gampel Pavilion roared when a whistle blew and the two-time WBCA Coaches’ All-American three-point shot fell through.
Those two buckets and Bueckers’ ensuing free throw started a 19-1 UConn run that lasted nearly six minutes. Chen scored seven of the Huskies’ next 13 points afterward. By the time halftime arrived, Connecticut held a 58-32 advantage and a 70% mark from the floor.
The Huskies stayed right around that clip with an efficient and balanced third quarter. 10 different UConn players got in the game; seven of them made a basket for a combined 72.2% clip. Arnold again had the final say for the Huskies as the period ended. Instead of a rebound, the Wisconsin native drove down the court to the basket and watched it fall right before the buzzer.
Connecticut only scored 14 points in the final frame, with Arnold and Ice Brady accounting for all but five of them. Allie Ziebell got the Huskies over the century mark with a layup as they finished off their sweep of Villanova.
UConn goes back out on the road for their most pivotal conference clash when they take on the Creighton Bluejays. Tip-off from the CHI Health Center in downtown Omaha Saturday is at 5:30 p.m. EST on FOX.
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