WBB: Seniors make appropriately impactful farewell efforts in Storrs finale
STORRS-Senior Day lived up to its name at Gampel Pavilion.
The University of the Connecticut women’s basketball program closed out its 2021-22 regular season proceedings by bidding farewell to four of its on-court representatives on Sunday afternoon. Scoring efforts from Dorka Juhasz, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Evina Westbrook, and Christyn Williams were enough to outpace the visiting Providence Friars as the departees united for 51 points in an 88-31 victory.
Juhasz led the way with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double while Williams led all scorers with 16. Nelson-Ododa nearly had a double-double of her own with 13 points and eight rebounds while Westbrook pulled down seven rebounds and stole two more.
Thus ends the Connecticut showings for the Huskies’ Class of 2022, one that represented the program in its return to the Big East Conference and one that has appeared in two NCAA Tournament Final Fours. Some will no doubt believe that a third could be on the way this spring if the Huskies keep up their current pace: since their lengthy winning streak against conference competition ended against Villanova on Feb. 9, UConn has won each of its final regular season games by an average of over 39 points.
“With the way the season went, game-to-game, there really wasn’t any expectation at one point. There was just an attitude of ‘let’s just try to win this game and see if we can get everybody back, a little bit here, a little bit there,” Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma said of the recent success. Though Auriemma cautioned that the recent success will have little impact on the coming postseason, he acknowledged that the team’s energy has taken a turn for the better since falling to the Wildcats.
“The Villanova game was maybe a game where we had a chance to see ourselves as an okay team when we don’t necessarily operate in a way that we need to operate…Since that game, we’ve been different. We’ve had a different mentality, a different energy level, gotten more players back.”
Though Providence (11-18, 6-14 Big East) eeked out a brief 4-1 lead over nearly the first four minutes of game time, any doubt toward the outcome was eliminated through a 29-0 run that closed out the first quarter and crossed over into the second. The 57-point demolition was a far cry from the teams’ first meeting on Jan. 30 on the Providence campus, where Connecticut prevailed by only eight.
“There was nothing about that (first) game that went according to plan. It was probably the first time that things had been so disrupted that I thought it had an effect,” Auriemma said of the
difference between the two meetings with the Friars. “Their defense was really good, our offense was stagnant. We know we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, our big guys weren’t particularly good. I don’t know that we did anything to help ourselves at their place. The game here, the first four or five minutes started exactly the same way.”
In response, UConn won Sunday’s rebounding battle 57-35 thanks in part to limiting the Friars to 18 percent shooting from the field.
“It was very important for us to make the net change, especially from the way we played them last time and especially carrying on the momentum from (Friday's 93-38 win over) St. John’s,” Nelson-Ododa said. “We were really just trying to fit things into place come tournament time. Right now, it’s all about the little details for us and the small things and just correcting those, making sure we’re getting things right before March.”
Juhasz is set to move on with only a dozen experiences on the hallowed Connecticut courts of Gampel Pavilion and XL Center, having spent this season as a graduate transfer from Ohio State. She nonetheless became a cherished member of the Huskies’ hardwood family, a sisterhood on display through an emotional showcase on Sunday: with Juhasz’s family absent, the whole team accompanied her onto the floor when she was introduced during the seniors’ commemoration. The national anthem of Juhasz’s native Hungary was also played prior to tip-off.
“I just felt so loved,” Juhasz said of the display. “Everyone was like ‘I want to walk you out, be there for you’. It was such an emotional moment for me. Then, after that, looking up, seeing my flag up there and then playing the music, I was just battling my tears…it was very emotional and I was really happy and I felt loved by my teammates and the fans. It was a really great experience.”
While Juhasz and her teammates were moved to joyous tears by the display, it did nothing to take their focus away from business. Her double-double was her first since Dec. 12’s neutral site win over UCLA and she capped things off by sinking her first triple since Feb. 13 at Marquette.
“We knew it was our last game and we wanted to go out with a win, a good win, that is helping us for the next few weeks,” Juhasz said. “I think everybody was prepared for that. Everybody was locked in. I think we learned from the past few games, even our losses, that we have to go and start a game really hard. I think we did a great job with that today, too.”
In underclassmen affairs, Azzi Fudd reached double-figures for the sixth consecutive contest with 14 points while Aaliyah Edwards earned at least five rebounds for the sixth time over her past seven games. Paige Bueckers also made her first appearance in Storrs since sustaining the knee injury that kept her sidelined for over two months against Notre Dame on Dec. 5. The sophomore sensation earned only two points (both at the foul line) but took on more of a facilitator’s role with a team-best five assists.
Janai Crooms and Kylee Sheppard (who left in the early stages of the third quarter with an ankle injury) combined to sink six of Providence’s ten successful field goal attempts, with the former pacing the visitors’ scoring with 12. The Friars ended their regular season with losses in each of their last four and nine of their previous eleven.
Having already wrapped up the Big East’s regular season conference title for the second straight campaign, the Huskies will now have five days off before their Big East Tournament adventure at Mohegan Sun Arena begins in the quarterfinal round on Saturday (12 p.m. ET, FS1). UConn will play the winner of the eighth and ninth seeds’ matchup on Friday morning (11 a.m. ET, Big East Digital Network), which could produce a third meeting with Providence, which is locked into the former spot.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
