Paige Bueckers: 32 Points at Seton Hall | 1.17.24

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — https://linktr.ee/womensbasketballall...

A first-quarter scare wasn’t enough to shake UConn women’s basketball, and the Huskies remained undefeated in Big East play with an 83-59 win at Seton Hall on Wednesday.

Paige Bueckers finished with a season-best 32 points shooting 70.6% from the field. The Huskies’ star guard also logged six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. It was her first game with 30-plus points since she had 31 against No. 5 UCLA on Nov. 24 and the sixth of her career.

“Paige is understanding better and better that this is her team. She has to control the game, and she did,” Seton Hall coach Anthony Bozzella said postgame. “That’s what makes her an All-American. My (assistant coach) Shakena Richardson … said to me, ‘She’s just so efficient.’ I know she was efficient as a freshman, but even more so.”

KK Arnold also scored in double-digits with 15 points, shooting 57% from the field and a career-best 4-of-6 from 3-point range. The freshman added four assists, two rebounds and a steal.

“I think that’s a great sign of maturity for her,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “She doesn’t get that many (3-pointers) during the game … and today I thought she took all the right ones. When you watch KK play, you see how she gets in the lan and creates things for other people … If that three becomes a really consistent shot for her, I just think that elevates her to a certain level.”

The No. 9 Huskies (15-3, 7-0 Big East) opened the game on a 6-0 run, but sloppy offense and disorganized defensive rotations put them down 23-21 to the Pirates (11-7, 3-4) after a quarter. It was the second time the Huskies have been behind after the first quarter in Big East play, previous trailing Butler 21-20 en rout to an 88-62 win on Dec. 18.

Turnovers plagued UConn early in the game, and six of Seton Hall’s first 16 points came off of turnovers. The Pirates logged 10 steals against the Huskies for 20 points off 18 turnovers, while UConn generated 14 turnovers for 19 points.

However, shots stopped falling for the Pirates in the second quarter as UConn settled in. The Huskies outscored the home team 30-10 and held Seton Hall to zero points over the final two minutes of the half. Seton Hall hit 80% from 3-point range and 64.3% from the field in the first quarter, but UConn limited the Pirates to just 15.8% from the field and 25% from three in the second.

“The way they came out, I thought they were aggressive in attacking us. They took advantage of misses that we had and really got it out in transition, and they were shooting the three like they’re the best 3-point shooting team in the country,” Auriemma said. “We didn’t really change that much what we were doing. We just kind of figured at some point it’ll even itself out.”

As the defense improved, offense came with it. Bueckers scored 10 points in the second quarter alone, and the team shot 77% from the floor and 57% on 3-pointers. Arnold also ended a shooting slump, hitting all of her first three 3-point attempts for nine points by halftime. She had not made a three since the Huskies beat No. 21 Creighton on Jan. 3.

“It was like a relief that finally my hard work before practice getting my shot consistent was coming about in a game,” Arnold. “My first shot in the second half, I remember Coach saying ‘Oh God!’ but the one after that I got under myself and followed through.”

Seton Hall remained pesky, outscoring the Huskies 18-10 in the third quarter after Bueckers left the floor briefly with a neck injury. After scrum at mid-court left her face down on the court in visible pain, Bueckers spent several minutes on the bench with an ice pack on the back of her neck.

The Pirates cut UConn’s lead to as little as nine points in the fourth, but the Huskies responded with a 12-1 run that put the game out of reach in the final minutes. Bueckers, uninhibited by her injury, shot 5-of-6 for 11 points in her final eight minutes on the floor.

“Once somebody starts talking trash or once you get hurt, another wave of adrenaline kicks in,” Bueckers said. “Not that you aren’t already playing with fire, but you just get that extra boost of energy when something like that happens … I just felt a whole bunch of cracking, and I don’t know if it was good for me, but it felt pretty crazy.”

Written by Emily Adams | Hartford Courant

https://www.courant.com/2024/01/17/uc...