After notching a 43-point win against the Villanova Wildcats on Wednesday night, the UConn women’s basketball team (18-2, 9-0 Big East) is set to take on the Creighton Bluejays (16-3, 8-0 Big East) Saturday, Jan. 23.
Wednesday’s matchup was pivotal for the program, as multiple players contributed to the win on both sides of the ball. This includes Kaitlyn Chen, Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong.
Chen, a graduate student and transfer from Princeton, hit a season-high milestone of 17 points, along with two assists.
“She had a little too much respect for our guys,” said head coach of the program, Geno Auriemma, said to the media when asked about how the California native has acclimated to the program.
As the season has progressed, Chen has started to become more aggressive in her starting role for the Huskies, that Bueckers says brings a different element to the team.
Feisty defense in Connecticut’s upcoming matchup versus the Bluejays will be crucial, as Morgan Maly from Creighton leads the Big East in three-point field goal percentage with 47.6%.
Maly, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, is a player on Creighton’s squad that the Huskies will have to keep an eye out for. In addition to leading her respective conference in three-point field goal percentage, the Nebraska native is also third in the Big East for field goal percentage with 50.4%, right behind Connecticut’s Bueckers and Strong.
A player who has the potential to aid the Huskies in their defense against Creighton on Sunday is graduate student Aubrey Griffin, who will play her third game back after not playing 351 days due to injury.
Bueckers said to the media on Wednesday night that the best element of Griffin’s game is her defensive versatility.
“I think she can guard one through five,” she said. “I think just getting more reps, getting more comfortable and finding her way back. It’s tough coming back from injury, let alone in the mid-season in the middle of conference play, but we know we have full confidence in her.”
With Griffin returning to the lineup and having 12 healthy players on the bench, it brings up the question of whether players will have to sacrifice minutes during the game, but Bueckers states that this is not the program’s main focus. “I think that’s just what this team is about, everybody being selfless,” she said.
Auriemma said that he’s very satisfied with the way his team has been playing so far, even with some players having to sacrifice their minutes, because of his squad’s quick and smart decision making.
“We’re making a lot of good decisions right now and that’s going to pay off,” he said, further commenting that those decisions lead to open shots.
Tip-off between these two Big East foes as the fight for the No. 1 spot is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. from the Ryan Athletics Center and D. J. Sokol Arena in Omaha, Nebraska. Husky fans can tune into this matchup on FOX.
100 – 53 =47