Dating back to the start of last season, when she returned from a back injury, graduate forward Aubrey Griffin has not been afraid to step up when the UConn women’s basketball team takes hit after hit. It first happened versus the Princeton Tigers last year, when Griffin’s career-high 29 points on a perfect 11-11 shooting made the difference in Connecticut’s five-point victory at Gampel Pavilion.
With junior guard Azzi Fudd out for the season after suffering a torn ACL in her right knee during practice on Nov. 14 and junior guard Caroline Ducharme dealing with neck stiffness, the graduate forward once again became that X-factor. Griffin led the charge with 31 points and 51 rebounds across two games as the No. 6 Huskies went 1-1 in the inaugural women’s Cayman Islands Classic, falling to the No. 2 UCLA Bruins Friday and outmatching the reigning NIT champion Kansas Jayhawks Saturday.
“She is a huge piece of our team that I do not think she gets enough credit for,” Cayman Islands Classic All-Tournament Team guard Paige Bueckers commented about Griffin on the FloSports broadcast following Saturday’s 71-63 win over Kansas. “We are a much better team when she is aggressive.”
Freshman guard KK Arnold made her first career start because of UConn’s injury woes, but picked up two fouls and went to the bench scoreless with 2:47 remaining in the first quarter. Her struggles represented a microcosm of the Huskies’ problems as the Bruins opened the contest with a 10-0 run in the first 4.5 minutes. Not even Bueckers could counter UCLA’s high-flying attack, which shot 5-7 from beyond the arc and 9-15 overall behind sophomore guard Kiki Rice’s 12 first-quarter points.
That all resulted in Connecticut being down 19, 31-12 precisely, less than a minute into the second. Yet, as if out of thin air, the Huskies flipped a switch once Griffin checked back in with 8:16 remaining until halftime. Producing like they did in the third quarter of their win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Nov. 19, UConn ended the first half on a 19-6 run and went into the locker room down 39-34.
But despite the graduate forward’s nine points and three steals, the Bruins punched back following the intermission. Rice and senior guard Charisma Osborne each rediscovered their shooting stroke in the third quarter, opening the second half with an 8-0 run and spearheading UCLA to a 20-point advantage with 3:31 left in the period.
Even with Bueckers’ three-point shooting pulling the Huskies within 10 with 3:28 remaining in regulation, the Bruins almost always had an answer on the other end. Connecticut trimmed the deficit to nine with 2:20 left, but it was too little too late as UCLA secured their first-ever victory over the 11-time national champions 78-67.
Rice finished two assists shy of a triple-double with a career-high 24 points on 9-15 shooting and 11 rebounds. Osborne took eight fewer shots than she did the last time the Bruins battled the Huskies in 2021 but buried six treys for 18 points while Stanford transfer Lauren Betts dropped 13 and grabbed seven boards. Bueckers accounted for more than half of UConn’s free throws en route to a season-best 31 points and five triples while Griffin recorded four steals and seven rebounds on top of her 11. Out of the Huskies’ 22 field goals, 17 of them came in the second and fourth quarters.
Freshman guard Ashlynn Shade, who scored Connecticut’s only bench points in Friday’s defeat, made her first career start the next night against the Jayhawks. That switch paid off as the Huskies scored nine points in the opening four minutes and held a 17-9 lead after the first quarter. Forcing four turnovers in a four-minute span in the second, Kansas clawed their way back as senior center Taiyanna Jackson attacked the paint. With the vultures circling around them up four, UConn made three baskets in the final 4:32 for a 25-20 halftime advantage.
Despite a flurry of buckets from just outside the paint, the Huskies found themselves going back and forth with the Jayhawks early in the second half. Once senior forward Aaliyah Edwards exited after taking a hit to the face with 5:03 remaining in the third, Connecticut found the spark they needed to create some separation. Even though Edwards never returned following that accidental contact, Griffin and Bueckers peppered Kansas at the charity stripe and from the field.
Freshman guard S’Mya Nichols’ wide-open triple made it a four-point game late in the frame, but the redshirt junior guard ended it with a bucket from downtown and sparked a 13-4 run that started the fourth quarter. The Jayhawks did not go away easily across the game’s final seven minutes, chipping away with a bucket in the paint. Jackson’s fast break layup pulled Kansas within five with 1:44 remaining, but once Bueckers crossed the 20-point mark 20 seconds later, the Huskies avoided trouble in paradise.
“I am really happy with the way we hung in there,” head coach Geno Auriemma said Saturday. “When you are struggling like we are struggling right now, it is just as easy to lose a game like this as it is to win it.”
Jackson recorded a double-double with 16 points and 12 boards, seven of which came on the offensive glass, while three other Jayhawks each had 14. Connecticut shot 45.6% from the field and avoided losing consecutive games for the second time in the 2023 calendar year behind their five-person bench, which outscored Kansas 10-0. Bueckers dropped 22 points with two steals and four rebounds while Griffin had 20 and eight in 37 minutes.
The Huskies’ three-week stretch away from the Nutmeg State closes with a massive challenge against the No. 12 Texas Longhorns (7-0) in Austin on Sunday. The second leg of the Jimmy V Women’s Classic tripleheader gets underway at 3 p.m. EST on ABC.