NEW YORK, N.Y. — Superstar Paige Bueckers had a successful return to the court after missing the last two games, leading the UConn women’s basketball team to a 71-45 rout of St. John’s at Carnesecca Arena on Wednesday night.
Bueckers was sidelined last week by a left knee sprain but resumed her spot in the starting lineup against the Red Storm and logged 12 points, five rebounds and two steals playing less just under 23 minutes. Bueckers is now six points away from becoming the 12th UConn player to reach 2,000 career points, and she can become the fastest in program history to hit the milestone when the No. 6 Huskies host Seton Hall at Gampel Pavilion on Sunday in her 102nd career game.
“I’m just glad to be back out there obviously,” Bueckers said. “The first game getting back from anything you just want to get your feet wet, get the feel of playing basketball again, they physicality of it, the pace of it. But I’m feeling good.”
The Huskies looked completely comfortable in the first quarter with Bueckers back on the floor and Bueckers immediately made her presence felt with an off-balance jump shot to score UConn’s first points of the game. Bueckers kicked off an 6-0 run for the Huskies over the first three minutes of the quarter, and they held St. John’s to just 3-for-10 from the field amid a red-hot shooting streak. UConn shot a combined 71.4% from the field, 50% from 3-point range and 100% at the free throw line in the opening quarter, and sophomore Ashlynn Shade sealed the dominant start with a buzzer-beater 3-pointer that sent the Huskies in the second leading 25-10.
UConn’s offense slowed in the second quarter up against a St. John’s defense that ranks No. 2 in the Big East in points allowed. The Huskies, who have the top scoring defense in the conference, still held the Red Storm to just 11 points in the quarter, but they went more than five minutes without scoring a field goal and shot just 4-for-10 from the field. Auriemma did his best to restrict Bueckers’ playing time, keeping her on the court for just over 16 minutes in the first half, and it took the redshirt senior some time to find her shot starting 1-for-4 from the field and 0-for-2 from 3-point range.
“The way the game started, she looked like she just picked up exactly where she left off, but there you start to see her drift, and she doesn’t have the stamina to keep her foot on the gas like she normally would,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “She spent part of the first half just wandering, and we couldn’t get her enough shots … I never doubt what Paige can do to impact the game because I’ve seen her do it so many times, but I also know she’s not a robot where you just put her in, push a button and everything happens automatically.”
The bright spot for UConn in the first half was star guard Azzi Fudd, who shot 50% both from the field and beyond the arc for a team-leading nine points. Fudd’s first 3-pointer ended the Huskies’ field goal drought, and she accounted for five of the team’s 11 points in the second quarter. Redshirt freshman center Jana El Alfy also had a statement half with six points going 3-for-4 from the field, and she added three rebounds and an assist without a single foul.
“We’ve always prided ourselves in having big kids that could impact the game a lot of different ways, going back to Kara Wolter and Rebecca Lobo,” Auriemma said. “So as it relates to Jana, there’s a lot of growing that she has to do. There’s a lot of learning that she has to do … She’s learning little by little, and every day she’s having more of an impact, little by little.”
Bueckers quickly hit her stride in the second half, putting up six points in the first five minutes of the third quarter. She combined with Fudd for eight points that put the Huskies on a 10-2 run, and UConn held St. John’s without a field goal for nearly five minutes after the Red Storm opened the half with back-to-back made layups. Both Fudd and Bueckers ended the third quarter scoring in double digits, and Bueckers improved to 4-for-7 from the field.
UConn’s 3-point struggles continued into the second half, going the entire third quarter without a make from beyond the arc, but the team put together a balanced offensive effort with 10 different scorers. Fudd led the way with 13 points shooting 6-for-11 from the field in just 25 minutes, marking her third consecutive game with at least 10 points. Ashlynn Shade also added 10 for her second straight game scoring in double figures, and the sophomore guard accounted for two of UConn’s four made 3-pointers missing only a single attempt from beyond the arc. The rest of the team went a combined 2-for-12 on threes.
The Huskies also kept up their stifling defensive effort through the third quarter, though UConn’s less-experienced lineups struggled to limit St. John’s down the stretch. The Red Storm had 14 points for their highest-scoring quarter of the game in the fourth, but they finished shooting just 33% from the field and 21% from 3-point range. The Huskies only narrowly won the turnover margin 15 to 13 with eight steals, but they were far more successful in capitalizing on those possessions with 17 points off turnovers to just six for St. John’s.
“I’m trying to give players an opportunity to see who fits with who and fits with what, so that first quarter, we kept that (starting) group intact and we scored 25 points against one of the best defensive teams in the Big East,” Auriemma said. “Then as the substitutions come and as new lineups come in, it just gets really confusing out there … Once you take Paige out of the game and you take Azzi out of the game, you’ve got a lot of kids that have not played a lot of basketball, and it’s going to look bad.”
