WBB: Open Big East championship trek with blowout win over Georgetown
UNCASVILLE - As another Big East Tournament championship trek dawned at Mohegan Sun, the Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball team took full advantage of an opportunity to readjust to their reloaded settings.
Back at full strength with the collegiate postseason underway, the Huskies (23-5) made quick work of the Georgetown Hoyas in the opening tilt of Big East quarterfinal action on Saturday afternoon. Sophomore sensation Paige Bueckers enjoyed a formal reintroduction to the national scene with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting in her third contest back after an 18-game medically-induced absence en route to an 84-38 Connecticut victory.
Saturday’s victory was, literally speaking, a comeback triumph for the top-seeded Huskies after Georgetown (10-19) jumped out to a 6-3 lead within the first three minutes. But after Milan Bolden-Morris sank a triple to create that brief advantage, UConn didn’t let the Hoya back on the scoreboard for the next 8:29 of game time, scoring 23 unanswered on their own end in that span.
The Hoyas’ streak of futility stretched to nearly 15 minutes when it came to shots from the field, allowing UConn to join the 2005 Villanova group in the Big East Tournament record books: by allowing only nine points in the first half, UConn tied a record-low set by the Wildcats against Boston College, which also came in the quarterfinal round.
Offensively, the Huskies were led by Christyn Williams, who sank each of her first five from the field en route to 13 first-quarter points. Fellow senior Dorka Juhasz had seven rebounds off the bench, including three of the offensive variety that helped lead to 11 second-chance points over the first 20 minutes.
The headliner of such a blowout was Bueckers’ reminder of her full capabilities, as last season’s Player of the Year of several outlets reached double-figures for the first time since coming back from the highly-publicized knee injury/meniscus tear in December. Bueckers put the finishing touches of Connecticut’s 43-9 halftime lead through a pair of triples, her first from deep since making her return eight days ago.
Though Bueckers’ court time was still limited (she played 18 minutes on Saturday after appearing 13 in each of her first two back), she made the most of it, particularly through a nine-minute stretch in the second half that saw her score 10 more on a perfect 4-of-4 mark the field. That tally included another semi-buzzer-beating triple, this one coming with two seconds left in the third that created a 66-25 lead to go into the final quarter. Bueckers also helped out on six Connecticut baskets (a team-high), with four of those assists coming in the opening quarter.
Bueckers wasn’t the only underclassman to play a major role in the Connecticut victory: fellow sophomore Aaliyah Edwards continued to make an impact, likewise earning 10 points in a sharpshooting second half (4-of-5). With 14 points, Edwards has reached double figures in four of her last six games and also reached at least five rebounds for the seventh time in the last eight (seven on Saturday, tied with Juhasz for the team-high). Freshman Azzi Fudd, another recent reinforcement off the injured list, helped the Huskies establish the early, permanent lead, putting in 11 points alongside Williams’ baker’s dozen.
Ninth-seeded Georgetown earned the right to play UConn through a 68-55 win over No. 8 Providence in Friday’s opening round action. Mary Clougherty was the only Hoya in double-figures with 10 on 4-of-8 shooting from the field, a rare silver lining on an otherwise dire scoresheet that saw Georgetown shoot 28 percent as a team (14-of-51).
UConn’s semifinal matchup will be the first of a Sunday Big East doubleheader at Mohegan Sun Arena, as they’ll battle fifth-seeded Marquette (3 p.m. ET, FS1). The Golden Eagles (21-9) have been victimized twice in Connecticut’s active eight-game winning streak, though they led at the onset of the fourth quarter in the former matchup on Feb. 13 in Milwaukee. Fudd tallied 24 points in UConn’s eventual 72-58 victory (primarily sustained through a 27-11 advantage in the fourth quarter) while they easily took care of a 69-38 victory in Hartford ten days later. Marquette, which is looking to solidify its NCAA Tournament case, topped DePaul 105-85 after the UConn-Georgetown tilt to move forward on Saturday.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
