STORRS – The big question Thursday night was how would the UConn women’s basketball team respond to the stunning loss to unranked NC State Sunday?
And on top of that, it was announced before the game that Azzi Fudd would be out with an undetermined knee injury. How would the Huskies deal with all of that against No. 20 Maryland?
Pretty well, as it turned out. After a bit of a stagnant offensive start, the eighth-ranked Huskies turned it up in the second quarter and played much better defense than they had Sunday and won 80-48 Thursday night back in the friendly confines of sold-out Gampel Pavilion.
Paige Bueckers led UConn (2-1) with 24 points on 10 for 15 shooting. Aubrey Griffin, who started in place of Fudd, had 13 rebounds, nine points, four blocks and two assists.
UConn scored 29 points off 27 Maryland turnovers and had 16 steals.
“I think everybody who watched the game last weekend, we were very disappointed with our defensive effort,” Bueckers said. “That was a huge emphasis in practice. It started with us older guys and the younger guys brought it on defense. Having pride and a will to want to defend and keep guys in front of us, we can count on each other. I think it was the feeling we had last weekend and not ever wanting to look like that again.”
UConn went on a 20-2 run to end the first half and led 42-27 at halftime and continued the pressure in the second half. With 5:59 left in the third quarter, the Huskies led 52-31 and Maryland never challenged.
“We learned a little bit about how we got to play and what happens when they punch back and what happens when it becomes a little bit of a back and forth,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I just think we became a little better team today.”
Maryland junior Shyanne Sellers, who averaged 23 points in the first two games, led the Terps with 16 points. Jakia Brown-Turner was the only other player for the Terps in double figures (13).
“We’ve got to find some additional players to help us score, but that was dictated by how hard they defended us,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “Saw some spurts in the first half but then Paige did what All-Americans do, she put the team on her back and made play after play.”
Auriemma said Fudd was injured Tuesday toward the end of practice. She dribbled the ball, stopped and shot the ball and said to him, “That felt funny” and went to the training room. Auriemma said her knee was still swollen so an MRI would have to wait until the swelling goes down.
“We’ve been dealing with this since our class has been here, guys in and out of the lineup,” Bueckers said. “No consistency of who we’re going to have every single night so it’s more of ‘How can we respond to this? Who’s the next guy who’s going to step up?’ I think we have that mentality. Nobody’s going to be Azzi but we can all contribute and do stuff to fill that void.”
After a quick start, the Huskies’ offense stalled. Aaliyah Edwards, who ended up with 12 points, hit a layup with 5:02 left in the first quarter for UConn to go up 11-6 but the Huskies didn’t score again until Griffin hit a long jumper with 50 seconds left. Sellers drained a 3 from the corner at the buzzer and Maryland trailed 14-11 after the first quarter. The Terps shot 4 for 18 in the first quarter.
Sellers tied it right away in the second quarter when she hit a shot and was fouled by Caroline Ducharme and made the free throw and it was 14-14. Maryland proceeded to go on an 8-3 run to take a 19-16 lead with 7:43 left in the half.
Bueckers, who had left the game after getting hit in the face and going down with 1:28 left in the first quarter, came back and jump-started the offense in the second. Maryland led 25-22 on two Sellers’ free throws with 4:58 left.
But Ice Brady hit a shot, Edwards was fouled and hit two free throws, Ashlynn Shade drove the baseline for a layup and the Huskies were off and running. With UConn leading 29-25, Bueckers had a steal and a layup and got fouled and hit the free throw and then drove for another layup. She had 11 of her 15 first-half points in the last three minutes of the half.
“I do think there’s players on our team that they know what they’re good at but they need somebody to kind of light that fuse and feel like they can feed off them and Paige became that today,” Auriemma said. “She became that lightning rod. That team on the floor, we had three freshmen out there – KK, Ashlynn Shade and Ice – I think we had a lot of young guys that benefitted from the way Paige took over the game.”
The Huskies continued the pressure, both offensively and defensively in the second half. Maryland shot 2 for 14 in the third quarter and trailed 57-36 heading into the fourth.
UConn is now 8-1 vs. Maryland, with the Terps beating UConn last year for the first time 85-78 on Dec. 11 in College Park. UConn only had seven players available that day, missing both Fudd and Bueckers, Nika Muhl and Dorka Juhasz.