Photos by Connor Sharp, Photo Editor
STORRS – Azzi Fudd doesn’t like to talk about her list of lasts in a UConn uniform – she hasn’t all year. It gets her in her feels.
She’s tried to tune out the emotion that’s inevitably crept up on her during her final year in Storrs and focus on winning. But as the confetti rained down on Fudd after UConn won the Big East Championship two weeks ago, the graduate wing came to a halting realization: her next two games were the last two she’d ever play in Gampel Pavilion.
The last true games in the Basketball Capital of the World. The last time playing alongside her best friends on her homecourt. The last time she’d be serenaded by a sea of blue and white as her name echoed off the cavernous dome above.
“When people say no place compares, it really doesn’t,” said a reminiscent Fudd. “No environment, the crowd, the fans, the students. Everything about this place is amazing.”
It only got more gut-wrenching for the sharpshooting wing when three early fouls relegated her to the bench for most of the first half during Sunday’s game against No. 16 seed UTSA. Geno Auriemma, recognizing that he didn’t need his All-American on the wing in the fourth quarter of a 38-point blowout, kept Fudd on the bench for all but 17 minutes in her penultimate game in Gampel Pavilion.
It was only fitting – or poetic, rather – that Fudd erupted for 34 points on 13-of-18 shooting in No. 1 seed UConn’s 98-45 explosion of No. 9 seed Syracuse in the Round of 32, right?
“I feel like I reached flow state for a second,” Fudd said of her nuclear night from 3. “My teammates were just finding me, setting me great screens. I wasn’t really thinking; I was open and said, ‘I’m going to shoot it.’”
With Syracuse star big Uche Izoje patrolling the paint and bottlenecking any looks at the basket in the half court early, Connecticut was forced to lean on its perimeter shot making and pressure defense to score. Fudd had no problem with that.
Snatching an arid Orange pass out of the air at the top of the key on Syracuse’s second offensive possession, the graduate wing slithered to the basket and left an easy lay-in for Ashlynn Shade at the rim.
Sarah Strong added five more in the next 45 seconds with a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer and elbow jumper. Fudd picked off another pass and sliced through the vaunted Syracuse paint for another uncontested look at the rim seconds later.
It was the start of what became a historic first-half onslaught.
Syracuse turnover, UConn lay-in. Orange clank, Husky swish. UConn full-court press, Orange 10 second violation. Rinse and (emphatically) repeat.
Photos by Connor Sharp, Photo Editor
Fudd spearheaded the effort alongside Strong – the two combined for 40 first half points on 16-of-23 shooting and seven assists – as the Huskies took a 65-12 lead into the break, which included a 31-0 run between the first and second periods.
“We knew that they liked to play zone,” Fudd said. “So we worked a lot on our zone offense today – just working on moving, cutting. I thought we did a good job of just being aggressive.”
Connecticut forced four more turnovers (16) than it allowed points (12) and made more field goals (27) than it allowed Syracuse to take (25).
“We were pretty focused,” Auriemma said of the first half. “We were pretty locked in together. That’s the best 20 minutes that I’ve seen in a long, long time… that’s about as good as it gets.”
Fudd’s ever steady and flaming hot hand couldn’t miss from behind the arc, canning 8-of-11, including four consecutive, attempts from 3 en route to tying her career-high in points by the mid-point of the third quarter.
“That’s kind of what Azzi does: not miss,” Strong said with a smile on the post-game podium. “I’m happy to see her at her most confident self, it’s going to be important in the long run.”
Off flare screens or a side-winding curls, in transition or off on the catch-and-shoot, Fudd drew nothing but nylon from deep. Her eighth 3-pointer brought a sold-out Gampel Pavilion to its feet as Syracuse called another timeout.
Then she was pulled, much to her teammates’, who implored Auriemma to keep Fudd on the court for one more basket, chagrin.
“We knew, we knew.” Blanca Quiñonez said jokingly when asked about Fudd being pulled right after tying her career high. “We just are so proud of her. We trust her.”
Exiting to one final standing ovation from the sold-out Gampel Pavilion crowd, Fudd took her seat on the bench between Strong and Serah Williams with a beaming smile and a slew of hugs from her teammates. Her 34-point outburst was the fifth time she eclipsed the 30-point mark as a Husky.
“It’s not going to hit me until I get home,” Fudd said. “We were sitting here after the game and I realized I’m never going to be in this locker room again. That’s crazy. It’s going to hit me when I get home that it’s real.”
UConn’s bench was emptied by the third quarter media timeout, with Caroline Ducharme and Ayanna Patterson entering to standing ovations of their own in place of Williams and Strong at the four minute mark.
Kayleigh Heckel and Allie Ziebell chipped in two baskets a piece in the fourth quarter, finishing with nine and four points, respectively, and guided Connecticut through the final quarter while Fudd and Strong roared from the bench in an eventual 98-45 win.
“I was watching something that reminded me of some of the NCAA Final Four games last year,” Auriemma said with a stern nod. “It looked a lot like that.”