STORRS — Superstar Paige Bueckers put on a show for the sold-out crowd at Gampel Pavilion on Sunday, leading the No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team to an 86-49 rout of South Florida in its on-campus opener.
Bueckers finished with 22 points shooting 9-for-10 from the field and 2-for-3 from 3-point range. She also added three rebounds and two steals in 28 minutes on the floor, sitting for most of the fourth quarter once the Huskies opened up an insurmountable lead.
Bueckers took control of the game almost immediately, starting 4-for-4 from the field and shooting 100% at all three levels in the first quarter. The star guard scored her first points on a fast break 3-pointer assisted by Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen, and Chen dished two more assists to Bueckers before halftime to enter the locker room with six total. Bueckers, who finished the first half shooting 89% from the field, logged 19 of the Huskies’ 43 points and also grabbed two rebounds.
Behind Bueckers’ dominant performance, forward Ice Brady helped power UConn to an 18-point lead at the half. Brady scored the first four points for the Huskies and ended the second quarter with six shooting 3-for-3 from the field after she finished 1-for-3 in the season opener against Boston University on Thursday. Chen also added six points, and sophomore Ashlynn Shade drained a buzzer-beater 3-pointer for her first field goal of the game to send the Huskies into halftime on a 16-4 run.
UConn’s defense was stifling against BU, with 25 steals and 33 forced turnovers, but the Huskies couldn’t disrupt the fast-paced USF offense as easily. Both teams turned the ball over eight times in the first half, and both capitalized on those opportunities with eight points off turnovers for the Huskies and eight for the Bulls before halftime. UConn’s biggest separator was its shooting performance, making 68% from the field to USF’s 37% in the first half.
Shade found a rhythm after her halftime buzzer-beater, scoring eight points in eight minutes during the third quarter. Star freshman Sarah Strong also settled in in the second half logging nine points and two rebounds in the third alone after entering halftime with four points and five boards. She made her first 3-pointer after starting 0-for-3 to extend a run of four straight unanswered field goals by the Huskies that opened up a 73-39 lead entering the fourth quarter. Shade ended as UConn’s second-highest scorer with 15 points shooting 70% from the field, and Strong added 13 plus seven rebounds and four assists.
The third quarter also marked a defensive turnaround for the Huskies. The team had a single steal before halftime but logged seven in the third, ending the game with nine steals and 20 points off of USF turnovers. The Bulls finished shooting just 36.2% from the field and made a single 3-pointer in the second half after hitting three in the first.
UConn played newcomer-heavy lineups for most of the fourth quarter, and freshman Morgan Cheli showed off her ability as a shooter with her only two field goal attempts of the game resulting in made 3-pointers. Eight of the Huskies’ 10 available players scored at least four points, and Brady and Chen both logged season-highs with eight points apiece. Though the team finished 6-for-16 on 3-pointers, it compensated by hitting 82% of its attempts inside the arc. UConn outscored the Bulls 58-24 in the paint.
