With 11 consecutive conference championships under their belt, the UConn women’s basketball team (29-3, 18-0 Big East) returned to the Big East tournament on Saturday afternoon. After solidifying themselves as the Regular Season Champions, the Huskies came into this tournament with a first-round bye, after notching the No. 1 seed.
Their first opponent? The St. John’s Red Storm, for their third meetup of the season in front of a sellout crowd of 8,816 at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Despite some slow first moments in the beginning frame, it was sovereignty from the program, pushing themselves to the semifinals with a 71-40 win.
Graduate guard Paige Bueckers was the catalyst for the third ranked Huskies in her fifth Big East tournament. The Minnesota native racked up a total of 20 points, five rebounds and three assists on the day.
Mid-range proved to be Bueckers’ sweet spot during, shooting 9-16 from the field.
Along with Bueckers’ heroics on the offensive side of the ball, the Huskies were a force to be reckoned with guarding the ball. Defense proved to be the key to unlocking the Huskies to the next round in the tournament.
“My team has done a great job of getting me open, setting great screens for me, and helping me find that. So, I’m just trying to take what the defense gives.” said Bueckers to the media post-game.
In the first frame, the Red Storm put two points on the board first, however, it was all Huskies for the duration, due to persistent defense that startled St. John’s.
Head coach of the program Geno Auriemma utilized his small ball roster to his advantage. Even though Connecticut did not shut out St. John’s for an entire quarter, the program shut out the Red Storm from notching any points for a duration of 10 minutes and 14 seconds through the first and second quarter.
At the half, the Huskies were up 34-17 and coming into the third frame, despite a comfortable lead, the Huskies struggled with their shooting from beyond the arc. The program only made one of their 11 attempted triples in the first half of the game and finished the matchup with a 10.5% accuracy rate from beyond the arc. With the feisty defense shown in the first half that carried over into the second half of the game, it was the difference maker for Connecticut, as they also only notched three turnovers.
“For those nights when the ball is not going in, you know you need to be able to do that. So that’s, that’s pretty much the story of the game.” Auriemma said to media personnel about his team’s defense.
In the second half of the game, as the Red Storm started to get more comfortable on the court against the Huskies, freshman Sarah Strong was the difference maker.
The North Carolina native notched a double-double on the day with 10 points and 15 rebounds. Head coach of the Red Storm, Joe Tartamella, described Strong as a “matchup nightmare.”
“The way she impacts games sometimes doesn’t even show up on the box score. It’s just how incredibly high her basketball IQ is.” said Auriemma to the media postgame comparing the forward to the UConn great, Kerry Bascom. “She’s just one of the best passers we’ve ever had.”
In addition to Strong having a successful day at the five, red shirt freshman Jana El Alfy did as well. The forward finished with six points and seven rebounds, four of those points coming from layups to kick off the Husky scoring in the game.
Next up, the Huskies will take on the Villanova Wildcats on Sunday afternoon for the conference tournament semifinals.
The Wildcats will come into this matchup as the fifth seed in the Big East tournament after upsetting the fourth-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles on Saturday afternoon, 73-66.
A player on Villanova’s roster the Huskies will have to look out for is the 5-foot-7 guard Jasmine Bascoe, who has been averaging 16.4 points per game and racked up a total of 22 points in her squad’s quarterfinal game versus Marquette.
The last time these two programs faced off against one another was on Jan. 22, where the Huskies took the win 100-57 and Strong led the Huskies in scoring with 22 points and five assists.
In order for the Huskies to attain their twelfth conference championship, the Huskies will need to polish their shooting from the arc and continue playing solid defensively. Per Auriemma, the Huskies will be without Aubrey Griffin for the conference tournament, as she missed the first quarterfinal game for precautionary reasons due to knee soreness. However, Auriemma expects she will return for the NCAA tournament.
Tip-off between these two Big East foes is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena and Husky fans can tune into the matchup on Fox.