One player scoring 20+ points in a college basketball game is impressive, but commonplace. Having two reach that mark, which has happened twice thus far for the No. 17 UConn women’s basketball team, is more remarkable. Three players dropping more than 20 points against a ranked Power Five opponent is about as rare as winning the lottery. Yet the Huskies drew the winning ticket on offense, with three players outscoring the No. 18 Louisville Cardinals by themselves in an 86-62 victory at the XL Center.
When UConn last wore their throwback jerseys a little over a year ago at Gampel Pavilion, graduate forward Aubrey Griffin put together her best performance with a career-high 29 points on a perfect 11-11 shooting. Although she missed two shots from the field in a larger venue and came off the bench in her third straight contest, Griffin recreated throwback magic against Louisville with 25 points, four steals and five rebounds.
“It is a gamechanger for us to have that spark and plug off the bench,” redshirt junior guard Paige Bueckers commented about the graduate forward. “She is just going out there and playing. She is a player that can do everything out there on the court.”
Just because Griffin took the third-most shots on the team and was one of four Huskies to go to the charity stripe does not mean she did everything by herself. Six days removed from matching Maya Moore’s program record for fewest games to reach 1,000 career points at 55, Bueckers recorded her second straight 20-point performance with four out of the team’s seven triples. Senior forward Aaliyah Edwards finished not far behind with her own 22 points on top of her seven boards, capping off a veteran attack.
“The seniors have to carry this team,” head coach Geno Auriemma explained afterward. “Today, they did.”
Beyond her efficient 10-12 shooting from the field, Edwards provided the punch Connecticut needed against the Cardinals. Louisville made seven out of their first eight shots in the first 4.5 minutes, with senior forward Olivia Cochran taking center stage in the interior.
Checking in for the first time following the U-5 media timeout, Griffin entered the scene and became that impact player. Even with her eight points off the bench, the Cardinals consistently prevented the Huskies from breaking the game wide open. By the end of the first quarter, both teams had combined for 31 shot attempts and each made 11 baskets.
That back-and-forth battle continued into the second, but with each punch thrown, Griffin continued heating up. Her overall presence on the court, combined with Bueckers catching fire, created the separation UConn could not get throughout the first quarter. Graduate guard Kiki Jefferson pulled Louisville within four twice in the final five minutes, but the Huskies maintained a 46-42 lead by halftime.
Like the start of the second quarter, the Cardinals struggled offensively out of the gate in the second half. Louisville head coach Jeff Walz picking up a technical foul two minutes into the frame made matters worse early on, yet the team stayed within single digits. Once that U-5 media timeout concluded, Connecticut put their foot on the gas and pulled away.
Bueckers gave the Huskies their first double-digit lead of the evening with 4:19 left in the third, and the three-headed attack kept pouring it on as the Cardinals called their second timeout a minute later. Graduate guard Nina Rickards’ floater got Louisville within 14 twice, but the damage had been done. Once the 2021 National Player of the Year buried consecutive triples in a 45-second span in the fourth, UConn never let the lead shrink to less than 18 the rest of the way.
Sophomore guard Ines Bettencourt and junior forward Amari DeBerry each entered with a little over a minute left, securing the Huskies’ first three-game winning streak of the season. Connecticut shot a season-best 59.3% from the field and dealt out 24 assists in their first game at the XL Center in over a month, but the players do not see an all-around performance like this one as the team’s ceiling.
“This is a step in the right direction,” Bueckers stated afterward. “We know that there is some stuff we need to improve on.”
The redshirt junior guard again became a monster on defense beyond her 20-point game, exceeding her career-high with five blocks and forcing two steals. Senior guard Nika Mühl turned the ball over a career-worst eight times but made up for it by dishing 10 dimes for the first time this season. In addition to the three veterans each scoring 20+ points, freshman guard KK Arnold dropped 11 with five assists and three steals in her third straight start.
Jefferson, Louisville’s leading scorer, put herself on triple-double watch with 19 points, six boards and five assists on 8-14 shooting. Graduate guard Sydney Taylor dropped 13 while Cochran added another six rebounds on top of her 12 for a Cardinals program that shot 41% from the field. Despite surrendering 27 points on 11-15 shooting in the first quarter, the Huskies’ defense allowed a season-low 20 points in the second half. While Walz had plenty to say about his team’s inefficiencies on both ends of the floor, Griffin’s impact off the bench stood out the most to him.
“She has got a motor that does not stop,” the Northern Kentucky alum commented. “She might have an off-night shooting the basketball, but she is never going to have an off-night effort-wise.”
Auriemma shared the same sentiment about the graduate guard’s multi-faceted impact on the game. “Today was the perfect example of Aubrey being Aubrey.”
UConn’s four-game stretch in the Nutmeg State concludes in Hartford with the start of Big East play against the Butler Bulldogs (8-3) on Monday. Tip-off in the Huskies’ first of 18 conference regular-season games is at 7 p.m. on SNY.