The No. 11 UConn women’s basketball team outscored the Villanova Wildcats 37-17 in the final 15 minutes on Wednesday night at the Finneran Pavilion. In that stretch, the Huskies made 18 of their last 22 field goal attempts and limited the Big East’s leading scorer, Lucy Olsen, to two second-half points.
Connecticut clashes with the No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks the next time they go on the road. Before that happens, the Huskies have a two-game homestand where they can continue building off their hot finish from the other night. The first contest involves another meeting against the St. John’s Red Storm on Sunday at Gampel Pavilion.
When the Red Storm visited Connecticut last February, they walked out of the XL Center with a 69-64 upset. The Huskies unleashed 11 months of pent-up fury on St. John’s at the UBS Arena in Elmont, NY, with 92 points when these two teams met four weeks ago.
Connecticut shot 64.4% from the field and 60% from downtown in that game, but no player had a better day than redshirt freshman Ice Brady. Coming off the bench, Brady buried seven of her 11 field goal attempts in 24 minutes for a career-high 17 points. The redshirt freshman has scored 18 points in five games since, but the Huskies need another efficient outing from her over the next week to stay ahead going forward.
Senior forward Aaliyah Edwards had a three-course meal down low in Wednesday’s victory over Villanova. Edwards feasted in the paint all evening for her second straight 20-point game and nearly collected a double-double. Since the team last played in Hartford on Jan. 10, the senior forward has not had a game with fewer than seven boards.
With that combination, Edwards will both make opposing frontcourts feel her wrath on the glass and make them pay for their defensive miscommunication if left unprotected in the lane.
The same applies for senior guard Nika Mühl, whose 1.3 triples a night are sometimes underappreciated. When left all alone, Mühl will not hesitate to let it fly from beyond the arc and make teams regret not covering her. Although the senior guard averages just 7.1 points a night, head coach Geno Auriemma has consistently mentioned that UConn’s style of play revolves around her. Mühl’s 136 assists and 87 rebounds further validate Auriemma’s statement.
Only redshirt junior Paige Bueckers has more boards among the Huskies’ guards. Bueckers has been the bucket Connecticut has needed with all of their injuries, and her 21.4 points a night against Big East foes are second behind Olsen. Four 20-point performances in her last six games aside, the redshirt junior wreaks havoc on defense with a team-leading 51 steals and 24 blocks, both of which are in the top 10 in the conference.
Sunday could be a prime opportunity for another dominant outing from first-year guard Ashlynn Shade, who has had four double-digit performances in her last six games. Outside of a 3-3 night against the Marquette Golden Eagles, however, the five-time Big East Freshman of the Week has not made three or more triples in that same span.
If Shade’s shots consistently fall, the Red Storm might be in for a world of trouble. Look for four-time Big East Freshman of the Week KK Arnold to be an X-factor. On top of being a force in transition with 50 steals and 67 assists, Arnold shot a perfect 4-4 from the field in the second half of Wednesday’s win and is scoring 10 points per contest.
St. John’s enters Storrs on a three-game winning streak and has won four out of their last five. Just one of those four victories came against an opponent in the top two quads, but that does not mean the Red Storm should be written off. Head coach Joe Tartamella’s squad began conference play with key wins over the Wildcats and then-No. 19 Marquette Golden Eagles at Carnesecca Arena.
With scorers like redshirt senior Unique Drake, the Johnnies are always going to be in any game they play. It took the reigning Big East Sixth Woman of the Year a few games to bounce back offensively after scoring a season-low four points against the Huskies, but she has rediscovered her groove. During the Red Storm’s three-game winning streak, Drake dropped 26 points a night and scored a career-high 36 versus the DePaul Blue Demons last Thursday.
Senior guard Ber’Nyah Mayo has been on a hot streak with 10+ points in each of her last seven games. What the UMass-Amherst transfer lacks in terms of three-point shooting—Wednesday marked just the second time all year she made more than one three—she makes up for by commanding the floor. Mayo’s 31 steals rank second on the team and her 3.7 assists a night are tied for ninth in the conference with Villanova’s Bella Runyan.
Sophomore guard Skye Owen causes even more trouble in transition with 1.6 steals and 2.3 assists a night. UConn limited her to three of each in Elmont, but Owen will want to build off the eight dimes she dealt out in St. John’s win over the Xavier Musketeers the other night. Graduate forward Jillian Archer, meanwhile, is the Red Storm’s primary big and the one who will deal with Edwards the most.
Archer is the only one that might prevent the senior forward from thriving as much as she did on Wednesday, but it will not be because of her 11.2 points a night. The graduate forward ranks third in the Big East with 39 blocks, and her 7.2 boards per game leads the team by a wide margin. Should Archer and Owen both get going on defense early, the Huskies may be in for a long night on their home court.
Tip-off in the second of four Big East contests at Gampel Pavilion is at 3 p.m. on CBSSN.