For four decades, the UConn women’s basketball team and the Syracuse Orange battled as Big East Conference foes. Monday night inside the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion became another memorable chapter in that rivalry.
Third-seeded UConn and sixth-seeded Syracuse delivered an epic game in Storrs, going back and forth up until the final buzzer. The Huskies-majority crowd delivered an energy harkening back to the days when the programs dueled annually. In the end, UConn topped Syracuse 72-64 en route to their 30th-straight Sweet 16 appearance.
“We have some pretty tough-minded kids … that knew how to win the game,” coach Geno Auriemma stated about his players in the postgame press conference. “That is what you need at this time of year. You need people who can make winning plays at big moments.”
Redshirt junior Paige Bueckers etched herself into history in front of the sellout crowd. It was not just her 32 points on 14-25 shooting that made the moment; Bueckers contributed on both ends of the floor. The First Team All-American recorded her third double-double in four games with 10 boards, dealt six assists and had four steals.
“She is our rock,” senior guard Nika Mühl said about the redshirt junior in the locker rooms after the game. “She is going to win us every game if she has to.” 
20 of Bueckers’ 32 points came in the first half. She picked up the spark that first-year guard KK Arnold started in the opening frame and ran with it during those opening 20 minutes. From her one-handed block on Alyssa Latham to her presence in the post, the redshirt junior attacked over and over again. She had the final say twice in the first half, landing two mid-range jumpers in the last minute as UConn went in the locker room up 11.
The Orange allowed the Huskies to shoot 52.9% from the field in those opening 20 minutes, but their defense held them without a bucket in the first five minutes and five seconds of the second half. This helped Syracuse go down 11 to within three in a 75-second span. Senior forward Aaliyah Edwards and Big East Freshman of the Year Ashlynn Shade responded with consecutive floaters, but Third Team All-American Dyaisha Fair had a response. The latter of those two had the last laugh with a triple from near Connecticut’s bench at the buzzer.
Both teams started out the final frame on fire, combining to make their first six attempts from the field. Shade’s final three of the night was the lone field goal by either program in the ensuing five minutes.
Mühl went from having two fouls to going to the bench after fouling out in 29 seconds halfway through the frame. The Huskies had been in this situation once back on Jan. 27. UConn’s entire offense struggled in the fourth quarter of that contest, losing at home by 15 to the then-No. 15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Having gone through that experience prepared the Huskies for the final five minutes and 16 seconds.
It did not start out that way ; Syracuse responded to Shade’s jumper with two-straight triples and pulled within two on a second-chance layup. The Orange had all of the momentum down three when junior guard Georgia Woolley rebounded Bueckers’ miss. But the Indiana native struck again, swiping the ball out of Fair’s hands as the Big East Player of the Year swiftly called timeout with 50 seconds remaining.
Bueckers, with three defenders closing in on her, tossed it to a wide-open Arnold as the shot clock winded down. Almost instantly, the six-time Big East Freshman of the Week let it fly from behind the arc. The ball bounced off the top of the rim and hit the backboard, holding the hearts of every Husky fan in the building.
It fell through on the second bounce. Deafening cheers roared all over the arena. Arnold herself was fired up after Syracuse called timeout. It was Connecticut’s biggest dagger of the year.
Edwards finished off the contest at the charity stripe following several suspenseful Syracuse shots on the other end. As she collected a double-double, the Huskies secured their first victory over a team with an AP All-American this season.
“I did not want my last game to be played in Gampel on [a loss],” the senior forward explained. “I know we needed a dub and I think as a team we just knew that we were not done yet.”
While it ended in disqualification, Mühl also left a mark in her last-ever contest in Storrs. The senior guard needed two assists to possess the program’s career record. It took almost three minutes for Mühl to tie Moriah Jefferson on the all-time list, doing so on a Bueckers’ breakaway bucket. She officially stood alone six minutes later. Shade, who buried the shot that gave Mühl the record, shined in the postseason spotlight once again with five triples and 19 points to go with four rebounds.
Fair averaged 22.3 points per game heading into the second round. Although she had a 20-piece behind four second-half triples, UConn’s defense held her to a less-than-efficient 6-22 clip and a 2-10 mark from inside the perimeter. Syracuse’s other two double-figure scorers, Woolley and Sophie Burrows each finished with 18 points. The Orange, as a team, buried 13 triples and scored 14 second-chance points, but despite forcing 17 turnovers, their 10-35 mark from two did them in.
UConn departs for Portland, Ore., later this week. The seventh-seeded Duke Blue Devils, who knocked off the second-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, await at the Moda Center.
There is one thing on everyone’s mind going into the Sweet 16 from the Emerald State: redemption.
“We are fortunate, and we get to go back to where it ended for us last year,” Auriemma commented. “We are a different team, different mindset, and we are hoping for a different outcome.”