The No. 4 UConn Women’s Basketball team, who are 41-1 at Mohegan Sun Arena, will return to the sight of their 2024 Big East Championship win, to play the Iowa State Cyclones Tuesday night for the Women’s Hall of Fame Showcase. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
The Huskies are coming off a confidence building 79-44 win against Georgetown on Sunday. Red shirt Paige Bueckers found her groove again, after finding herself in a recent scoring slump. The Minnesota native attained 24 points and shot 11-16. In addition, Bueckers was also named the Big East Player of the Week after shooting 61.1% in her matchups against Notre Dame and Georgetown.
Iowa State is coming off a 75-69 loss against Iowa on Wednesday and an 87-55 win against Eastern Illinois on Sunday. A player on the cyclones the Huskies will have to keep an eye out for is sophomore center Audi Crooks. The six-foot-three Iowa native has averaged 21.6 points per game in her second year and notched at least 30 points in her squad’s most recent games against Iowa and Eastern Illinois.
It will be a battle of the boards between these two programs, but it’s not anything the Huskies cannot handle.
“When she [Crooks] comes down on the floor, it’s a problem for every team that they play. I don’t care who the other team has, we’re gonna have a problem with her.” Head coach Geno Auriemma said on Crooks after his program’s win against Georgetown Sunday. “When you have what she [Crooks] has, it’s something that very few people in the country.”
Bueckers and freshman Sarah Strong have been the dynamic duo all season long for Connecticut and will be a key part in this upcoming matchup. Strong notched her second double-double of the season on Sunday against the Hoyas, including a career-best of 17 rebounds.
“It’s on everybody to help out, to make things harder for her.” Bueckers said to the media Sunday on guarding Crooks. “So, I’m sure we’ll go through that and how we want to attack it, but it’s a team game plan.”
It all goes down tomorrow night as these two squads face off for the first time since the 2010 NCAA Tournament. If Husky fans cannot make it to the game, they can tune into the matchup on FS1.