Geno Auriemma was eager to see how UConn women’s basketball would respond to its first big test of the season Monday night. He had loved the intensity and resilience his team had displayed thus far, but how would this group embrace the stress of a top-five matchup?
The No. 5 Huskies made their fair share of mistakes but proved to be up for the challenge as they defeated the No. 3 Texas Longhorns 83-76 in front of a sold-out crowd at Gampel Pavilion.
Fudd had a sensational performance to lead the Huskies (2-0) in scoring for the second time in as many games. The sophomore guard finished with a career-high 32 points on 4-of-7 shooting from deep, along with four assists. That’s tied with for the most points ever scored by a UConn player against a top-five opponent — Diana Taurasi had 32 points against No. 2 Tennessee in 2002.
“When we were good, we were really, really good, and when we were not good, we were not good at all,” Auriemma said postgame. “And for the second game of the year, I didn’t expect us to be in midseason form, but we found a way to win the game in spite of whatever it is that we didn’t do or whatever foul trouble we got in and whatever mistakes we made.
“And I’ve said this a lot over the years, when two really good teams play against each other, it usually comes down to one team has one guy that just takes over the game and wins it for them, and that’s what Azzi (Fudd) did for us. Obviously, she didn’t do it single handedly by herself, she had a lot of help, but … that was an All-American performance today, that’s like a Player of the Year performance tonight. I don’t know that we can count on that every single night, so we’re gonna have to fix a couple of things, but it was pretty impressive tonight, I thought.”
Aubrey Griffin (14), Lou Lopez Sénéchal (12) and Aaliyah Edwards (11) all scored in double figures for UConn. Nika Mühl led the team with nine assists while Dorka Juhász finished with nine rebounds and four steals
UConn shot 55% from the field and 53% from 3-point range. The Huskies outrebounded the Longhorns 34-26, had a 44-34 scoring edge inside the paint and scored 23 points off turnovers.
The Huskies’ defense left room for improvement as they allowed the Longhorns to shoot 51.8% from the field and 44% from deep. UConn also struggled at the free-throw line, making just 9 of its 18 shots.
Though both sides entered the matchup ranked as top-five teams, each was missing its star point guard. The Huskies are without Paige Bueckers (ACL tear) for the season while the Longhorns had to go without 2022 Big 12 Freshman of the Year Rori Harmon, who has been dealing with a toe injury.
The Huskies did get a good break on the injury front, though. Sophomore guard Caroline Ducharme made her season debut after missing the exhibition and first game due to neck stiffness. Ducharme played five minutes off the bench and finished with two points.
Auriemma expected the top-five matchup to be a physical, aggressive affair, and it proved to be just that in the early going. The Huskies trailed 19-18 at the end of the opening frame. The two sides combined to commit nine turnovers and 12 fouls in the first quarter. Edwards and Sénéchal were both whistled twice a piece, and Sénéchal played limited minutes throughout the rest of the night as foul trouble was an issue for UConn.
The game continued to go back and forth for most of the second quarter, until UConn was able to create some slight separation with a 8-0 run in less than two minutes. Griffin sparked the effort for the Huskies by grabbing a missed layup from Edwards and putting it back up for the score with under four minutes left. Then Fudd scored back-to-back buckets off assists from Mühl, the second of which came off of steal.
The Huskies shot 64.7% in the second quarter and made their last six shots from the field to enter the halftime break with a 42-37 advantage over the Longhorns. Griffin led much of that effort with 12 points off the bench, while Fudd had 10.
“I mean that’s what Aubrey does,” Fudd said. “Her energy and her intensity on defense and then offensively, I mean when she starts going to the rim and when she gets out on a fast break, it’s over. Just that energy and that second wind she brought from the bench was just what we needed to keep us going.”
The first half featured 11 lead changes and seven ties, with the two teams combining for 21 turnovers.
The home crowd went wild after Mühl drained a 3-pointer from the corner with under six minutes left in the third quarter to give the Huskies their largest advantage of the night, up 52-41. The Huskies limited their turnovers in the third, only giving the ball up twice, and held the Longhorns without a field goal for four minutes during a stretch towards the end of the period to maintain the lead. They were up 63-51 entering the fourth.
Fudd entered the final frame with 15 points, but she was only just getting started. The sophomore guard scored nine straight points to open the fourth, capped off by a 3-pointer that brought the home crowd to its feet and gave UConn a 72-56 lead with under seven minutes left. She had 17 of the Huskies’ 20 points in the quarter as they held on for their first big win of the season.
“I’m really proud of our entire team,” Fudd said. “There’s a lot that we can take away that we can get better at, but there’s also a lot of a lot of really good things that we did. And if we just keep building on it then this season’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
UConn is set to face another ranked opponent on Sunday when it takes on No. 10 NC State. The rematch of last season’s Elite Eight thriller will tip off at 1 p.m. at the XL Center and air on Fox Sports 1 .
A legend honored
UConn legend Swin Cash received the ultimate honor on Monday night. The two-time national champion had her No. 32 retired and hung in the rafters in a ceremony half an hour before tip.
Cash joins Rebecca Lobo and Ray Allen as just the third player in the history of the UConn men’s and women’s basketball programs to have their number retired. The honor is only given to basketball alumni who are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame; Cash was inducted into the Hall as part of the 2022 class in September.
