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SPOKANE, Wash. — UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers took over the Huskies’ Sweet 16 matchup against No. 3 seed Oklahoma in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, leading the team to an 82-59 win at Spokane Arena.
Bueckers willed No. 2 seed UConn to victory with a career-high 40 points shooting 59.3% from the field, and she hit a career-high six 3-pointers going 6-for-8 beyond the arc. The redshirt senior did everything for the Huskies beyond her scoring, adding six rebounds, a team-high two blocks and three steals. Bueckers is just the fourth UConn player to ever score 40-plus in a game, and she set a program record for points in an NCAA Tournament game.
“I’m extremely blessed and extremely grateful that I even get to play at UConn and be in these conversations with, like, the greatest of all time,” Bueckers said. “People see the points, but (there’s) a large attribution to (my teammates), the way they were screening for me, getting me open, getting me looks. Everybody sees the points, but nobody sees the screens set, the passes that were found to me, so it’s I guess an individual point total, but it’s really a team effort.”
Sophomore Ashlynn Shade joined Bueckers in double-digits with 12 points shooting 62.5% plus three steals, and freshman Sarah Strong logged her second double-double of the tournament with 11 points and 11 rebounds plus five assists and two steals. Star guard Azzi Fudd added 10 points, and she matched Strong for a team-high five assists.
“I see a lot of teams when somebody gets 40, they lose, so I like the fact that we did get contributions from (other players),” coach Geno Auriemma said. “Everybody that played contributed something, and I think it’s the confidence that they have in Paige, knowing that when she gets like that, they just kind of have to do their part and everything will take care of itself. That’s probably the biggest difference from this year to last year. We have more people that can help, and tonight they did.”
The Huskies advance their 29th Elite Eight appearance and their fourth in the last five years. Before the victory, UConn was 0-2 this season in games where it trailed at the half, and Oklahoma was 22-0 in matchups where it led. UConn will play regional top seed USC, a 67-61 winner over No. 5 Kansas State in Saturday’s late game, in Monday night’s Spokane 4 Regional final with a berth in the Final Four on the line.
It took UConn some time to shake off the nerves early in the first quarter, giving up an 8-0 run to the Sooners over the first two minutes of the game. Oklahoma star Raegan Beers nailed a rare 3-pointer during the opening run, but UConn’s post players held their ground defensively and gave up a single first-quarter field goal to the 6-foot-4 center in the paint. Redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy grabbed four boards plus a steal in her first five minutes on the court, and the undersized Huskies were out-rebounding Oklahoma at the end of the first.
Bueckers almost single-handedly pulled UConn out of the eight-point hole, scoring seven consecutive points on a 9-0 run that gave the team its first lead of the game. The superstar guard had 11 of the Huskies’s 17 first-quarter points to send them into the second with a five-point lead.
But Bueckers missed all three shots she attempted in the second quarter, giving Oklahoma an opening that it immediately took advantage of. The Sooners hit seven field goals in a row while scoring 10 unanswered points to reclaim the lead, and they capitalized on UConn’s mistakes with five points coming off of turnovers. Oklahoma guard Payton Verhulst scored all 13 of her first-half points in the second, and the Sooners shot 62.5% from the field in the quarter while holding UConn to just 25%.
“I came in the locker room at halftime and thought long and hard and came up with a strategy. I said we should guard (Verhulst),” Auriemma joked. “I think we got a little bit lazy or a little bit distracted, and it happens when you’re not making shots … When you’re missing shots, it’s like ugh, and you just make a couple mistakes. So yeah, in the second half we concentrated really, really hard on Payton.”
Despite leading the turnover and rebounding battles at halftime, the Huskies trailed 36-32 largely because of their poor shooting performance. Fudd went just 2-for-7 in the first half, and Shade was the only player on the team to hit multiple 3-pointers before halftime. Strong didn’t score her first points until late in the second quarter after an 0-for-6 start, and she and Bueckers combined for five of the Huskies’ nine first-half turnovers.
Bueckers came out of the halftime locker room with a vengeance, swishing a 3-pointer seconds into the third quarter to set the tone for the Huskies. She scored the first five points of the second half for UConn, and point guard Kaitlyn Chen gave the team its first lead since the start of the second quarter with her first made layup of the game.
Bueckers impacted nearly every play to start the third quarter, hitting a second 3-pointer then assisting Chen on her second basket off of a steal. She followed the assist by floating in a jumper that put the Huskies on a 9-0 run, giving the team then its biggest lead of the game.
“There were a couple of times where I was just like, where’s Paige? It’s heat check time, they’re all going in,” Fudd said. “Like, she had a couple from deep and I knew they were going in just when she gets in that mode. I love seeing her be able to take over the game like that, because she can do it at any moment.”
UConn shot 57.1% from the field in the third quarter and hit three 3-pointers after ending the first half with just four makes. Bueckers logged 10 points in the third, and UConn ramped up its paint presence significantly outscoring the Sooners 14-4 after trailing 18-8 in the paint at halftime.
Bueckers started feel victory in the Huskies grasp after nailing a 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter. She celebrated with a joyful yell, one of her few emotional reactions in the game, when she drew a foul on a layup for another 3-point play, and she finished with 19 of UConn’s 23 points in the fourth for her highest-scoring quarter of the game. She outscored Oklahoma by herself, 29-23, in the second half.
“That was as good a game as I’ve seen her play the whole time she’s been here at the most important time,” Auriemma said. “When you’re a senior and you’ve been around as long as she has, this is what you’re here to do. This is why you came here. So we’re pretty excited about playing Monday night.”
