The last time the UConn women’s basketball team hosted St. John’s in Hartford, a mortified XL Center crowd watched mighty Connecticut get picked off by a Red Storm team that punched the Huskies squarely in the gut. A 69-64 loss – on Connecticut hardwood.
The Johnnies led for over 28 minutes, made 23 field goals and shot 50% from 3.
The Huskies, meanwhile, finished 22-of-62 from the field, turned the ball over 12 times and were minus-five on the glass. The Huskies had just lost for the third time in six games.
That team didn’t have Sarah Strong or a healthy Azzi Fudd at its disposal, however. It did, nearly three years later, on Wednesday night.
The Huskies led for over 39 minutes, turned the ball over a season-low eight times and hit on 36 field goals, flexing its lead to as large as 46 points in the fourth quarter.
Connecticut (16-0, 7-0) extended its winning streak to 32 games in the 88-43 poleaxing of the Red Storm (13-4, 3-3). Strong and Fudd combined for 40 points and 10 steals, hit on 15 field goals and assisted six teammates in the 45-point win – the sixth by at least 40 points this season for the top-ranked Huskies.
“I thought our energy was incredible today,” Geno Auriemma said. “We were flying to the ball, covered for each other really, really well – the best that I’ve seen so far this year.”
Connecticut forced 33 Red Storm turnovers, including a combined 18 from three starters. The Johnnies attempted 39 shots – making only 14 of them – and shot 30% from 3. The Huskies made only three less shots than St. John’s attempted.
The Red Storm never led, nor did it have the opportunity to.
In fact, the Johnnies turned the ball over four times and allowed eight points before they got it inside their 3-point line. Joe Tartamella had to burn a timeout after Connecticut raced out to an 8-0 lead (less than two minutes into the game) before the Red Storm got a shot off on the Huskies’ top-ranked defensive unit.
“Our full-court defensive pressure sped them up,” KK Arnold said. “That created for our steals, and we were off to the basket.”
Arnold, who returned on Saturday after fracturing her nose last week, nabbed three of those first four steals – all of which came in the span of 40 seconds.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Arnold added. “Maybe I just black out on defense. I just go straight for the ball, look for where the ball’s going and I just anticipate.”
Arnold piloted the offense to a season-low eight turnovers in her 21 minutes, forcing six turnovers herself while dishing four assists.
Connecticut jumped out to a 20-2 lead behind an onslaught of fast break and paint points (and an Arnold 3-pointer). It took the Johnnies over five minutes to connect on their second field goal, and by the end of the first quarter, the Huskies had more made field goals (13) than St. John’s had field goal attempts (8), makes (2) and assists (2) combined.
Twelve turnovers and a 22-0 advantage in the paint gave the Huskies a 28-9 lead at the end of the first. Connecticut had racked up 14 points on fast breaks and 18 off turnovers, getting eight from Strong and seven from Arnold, respectively.
“If you look at her whole body of work,” Auriemma said of Strong’s progression as an on-ball defender from last year, “there’s a knack that she has to get a piece of the ball every time she reaches for it.”
The betting favorite to win the Wooden Player of the Year Award poked six balls loose in her 28 minutes of game action and scored a game-high 24 points on 11 made field goals.
But she wasn’t alone on the offensive end. Seven Huskies scored more than one basket, including three who finished double-digits. Fudd’s 16 points on 4-of-8 shooting was crystalized by her 2-of-2 mark at the free throw line, keeping her aspirations of a 50-50-100 season intact.
Blanca Quiñonez came off the bench and, again, punched 14 points into the box score on seven made field goals – all of which came from inside the arc. The freshman forward also grabbed three rebounds, four steals and four assists in 22 minutes.
Kayleigh Heckel, her bench buddy, chipped in nine points and three assists in a hardy effort at the point.
“Heckel had a great game today,” Auriemma said. “May not show up in the box score, but she played really, really well.”
The sophomore had a better grasp of the offense – particularly in transition – than she did in prior games, running the floor with tempo and, most importantly, avoiding turnovers.
“If you watch film of her a month ago and watch film of her tonight, it’s a completely different player,” Auriemma added.
Connecticut outscored St. John’s 54-10 in the paint, 46-6 off turnovers and 25-2 off fast breaks.
“I think our practices this week played a part in that,” Fudd said, reflecting on the imbalanced box score. “They were definitely very defensive-oriented; working on those fundamentals of keeping a man in front of you, boxing out, pressing, rotating.”
The Huskies have a cross country trip to Omaha, NE on tap for this weekend for a bout with a reeling Creighton squad. It’s the Huskies last away game before its homestand against Villanova and Notre Dame.