The next item on a long list of lasts for Azzi Fudd and the UConn women’s basketball team’s senior class has been checked.
Well, two items, actually (or more, depending on how thorough your list is).
UConn blitzed Georgetown (13-15, 6-13) 84-52 in its Hartford finale, bringing it within one game of a fourth consecutive undefeated regular season in Big East play and extending its winning streak to 46 games.
The 32-point shelling of the Hoyas gave Connecticut its 30th win of the season and 16th at home. This particular Thursday night game in Hartford had a kicker to it, however: it was the senior class’s last regular season home game as Huskies, which, oddly enough, happened after Senior Day.
“Today was really special,” Fudd said. “The fans are always amazing. To play well and to get this win tonight, I mean, you come here to win championships, so to celebrate your last game here with confetti, it was a great feeling.”
Unlike Saturday’s 81-38 detonation of Providence, when the Huskies built a 25-point lead by the second quarter media timeout, UConn found itself down in the opening minutes to a Georgetown team that just couldn’t miss from 3.
The Hoyas found the bottom of the net on four of their first eight 3-point attempts, including a stretch of three in a row that was rivaled only by Fudd on the other end.
The graduate wing accounted for eight of UConn’s first 12 points, matching the Hoyas’ 3-point barrage with three of her own from behind the line and a pair of elbow jumpers in the opening seven minutes.
“My mindset going into the game was just to be aggressive,” Fudd said. “In shootaround all that came out of my mouth was, ‘oh it’s my last this, it’s my last that, it’s my last shootaround,’ knowing that I should have fun, I wanted to enjoy this last game here with my teammates, being aggressive, reading whatever the game’s giving me.”
It was the start of what became Fudd’s 10th 20-point game this season and second in Hartford. As she checked out for the final time in PeoplesBank Arena as a Husky with a minute remaining in the third quarter, her game-high 24 points and 9 made field goals (including six 3-pointers) warranted a fitting standing ovation.
Georgetown answered her early haymakers, though, punching back after every UConn run with four of five in a row to end the first quarter down only one point.
Then Sarah Strong – as she inevitably does – got going from the paint. And the perimeter. And on defense.
Strong rattled off 11 of her 13 points in the second quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions that pumped the Huskies’ lead up to seven in the matter of 50 seconds.
“The way I started the first quarter was really slow,” Strong said, “so I just tried to get out of my own head and know that my team needed me to show up. So, I just kind of started it (the second quarter) off like it was a new game.”
And it was all Connecticut from there. Three Huskies enclosed on unsuspecting Hoya ball handlers in the backcourt and forced wayward passes that Strong picked off and cashed in at the hoop. Kayleigh Heckel got in on the team picture in the paint with two elbow jumpers of her own, which raised Connecticut’s lead to 14 by the midpoint of the second period.
“During our timeouts I made a really key adjustment,” Auriemma quipped. “I said we should guard them at the 3-point line. And it worked, it really did.”
On the first possession out of the break and in danger of turning the ball over a 14th time, Darnell Haney was forced to burn a timeout after Khadee Hession got trapped by Fudd and Allie Ziebell in the coffin corner. That same possession ended with KK Arnold at the free throw line after she was fouled on a coast-to-coast lay-in.
The Huskies completely smothered a reeling Georgetown offense in the second quarter, holding the Hoyas to a 2-of-14 mark from the field and forcing eight turnovers – a defensive stand that was emblematic of a 23-point halftime gap.
The second half offered much of the same. Georgetown turnover, UConn score; Georgetown airball, UConn 3-pointer; Georgetown shot clock violation, UConn lay-in.
It snowballed for the Huskies, who with a lineup comprised mostly of reserves, stretched their lead to as large as 36 in the third quarter. UConn forced 23 Hoya turnovers, which it cashed in for 26 points, and held Georgetown to a 32% (16-of-50) mark from the field.
Connecticut’s attention now turns to a date with St. John’s (21-9, 11-8) at Madison Square Garden on Sunday for the last game before post season play begins in Uncasville next weekend.
“I’m so excited, I think the team is super excited,” Fudd said of playing at MSG. “We know how much of an honor it is… I know a bunch of people have tons of family and friends coming.”