Despite dropping a 30-piece against the DePaul Blue Demons on Sunday, redshirt junior Paige Bueckers did not earn Big East Player of the Week honors. That honor went to Georgetown’s Kelsey Ransom, but Bueckers took her placement on the Big East Weekly Honor Roll personally.
Shooting a potent 11-15 from the floor, the redshirt junior one-upped her 30-piece with 31 points and five rebounds. Bueckers accounted for almost half of the No. 10 UConn women’s basketball team’s 24 field goals, leading the charge in a 67-46 victory over the Villanova Wildcats at Gampel Pavilion. That all happened without the Minnesota native recording an assist for the first time this season.
“I love to pass the ball, I love to create for others,” Bueckers commented after the game. “The story of my UConn career is trying to find that balance (between passing and shooting)… it always gives you something to work on.”
Her offensive efficiency was needed everywhere with the rest of the team shooting 13-39. Despite another double-double, senior forward Aaliyah Edwards shot 4-12 on the night with almost half of her 14 points coming at the charity stripe. The senior forward made up for that with a post presence that caused trouble for anyone who contested her.
Conversely, UConn’s lockdown defense contained several of Villanova’s key contributors. The Big East’s leading scorer, Lucy Olsen, scored just six points, continuing a trend where the Huskies limit a team’s top scorer at home. Junior forward Christina Dalce had just two points in six minutes while dealing with foul trouble. First-year guard Maddie Webber made just one of her seven shot attempts. As a team, the Wildcats shot 31% from the field and shot 4-23 from downtown.
Villanova’s foul trouble saw their main post players pick up two fouls in the game’s five minutes. It caused them to run a true small-ball lineup for most of the first half. Despite having no forwards on the court, the Wildcats did what they could throughout the first quarter to disrupt any rhythm Connecticut tried to create. That five-guard rotation allowed Villanova to always be within reach.
The Huskies again experienced an injury scare when senior guard Nika Mühl went down with 13 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Mühl held her knee and slapped the floor with her free hand as Gampel fell silent. In that moment, with multiple trainers around her, it appeared as though the senior guard had suffered a serious injury.
With every step she took without assistance toward the UConn bench, however, the crowd’s applause got louder and louder. The Huskies held a five-point lead over the Wildcats when Mühl left and a seven-point advantage when she returned two minutes into the second quarter. She kept Connecticut’s offensive momentum going for most of the frame.
Part of that came from the Huskies’ ability to create extra possessions. Villanova turned the ball over 11 times in the first 20 minutes. Those extra possessions allowed the redshirt junior to thrive with 16 first-half points at a 6-9 mark.
Even then, her efficiencies were not enough to solve some of UConn’s struggles late in the second quarter. The Huskies closed the first half without a field goal in the final 3:30 and went into the locker rooms up 11. While their defense limited Connecticut, the Wildcats’ offense could not respond on the other end for most of the first half. Olsen’s two points came at the free-throw line. Junior guards Zanai Jones and Kaitlyn Orihel stepped up with their leading scorer silenced, accounting for 75% of Villanova’s 18 points.
The Wildcats’ lack of an established front court for most of the first half allowed Edwards to get down to business. The senior forward put herself on the cusp of a second-straight first-half double-double with 10 points and nine boards through 20 minutes. She did not get that 10th rebound until the eighth minute of the third quarter as both teams struggled for control.
Orihel’s quarter-ending buzzer-beating floater provided a spark for the Wildcats heading into the final frame. Despite an early deuce from Bueckers, who had four fouls at the time, Villanova rattled off five-straight points that forced a UConn timeout with 8:22 left. Both teams looked like they were headed toward a last-minute finish, but as soon as first-year guard Ashlynn Shade made her first bucket of the second half, the Huskies pulled away.
Connecticut went on a 16-2 run over the final 7:08 of the game and made five out of their last six shots from the floor. The Huskies’ all-around efforts prevented Villanova from pulling within single digits as they finished undefeated at home in Big East play.
“When they cut it to seven, I thought we showed a lot,” head coach Geno Auriemma stated after the game. “We went on a really good run after that, so I was really proud of [the team].”
It was not a perfect night for UConn, who turned the ball over 16 times and shot 27% from behind the arc. Despite their less-than-ideal offensive performance after dropping 104 in the Windy City three days earlier, the Huskies picked up 13 assists and outrebounded the Wildcats 40-30.
Orihel stepped up as Villanova’s main source of offense with 15 points and all but one of the team’s triples. Senior guard Bella Runyan had the other and the second-most points of any starter at seven. All 10 of Jones’ points and both of her rebounds came in the first half. Like Connecticut, the Wildcats handed out 13 assists and scored at least 10 fast-break points.
The Huskies’ regular-season home slate is over, but they still have one contest remaining in Big East play. That matchup will occur in Providence, R.I., where UConn will conclude conference action versus the Providence Friars on Saturday. Tip-off in Connecticut’s 18th Big East battle is at 7 p.m. on SNY.