The UConn women's basketball team have punched their way into the Elite Eight round of the NCAA national tournament as they beat the Duke Blue Devils, 53-45. Once again, the Huskies were led by star Paige Bueckers as she and head coach Geno Auriemma had their own messages about their quest to become national champions and adding to the program's legacy.
Bueckers was exceptional as she scored 24 points, collected five rebounds, and recorded three steals in the win over the Blue Devils, making nine of her 21 shots from the field. After the game, Bueckers would say at this point of the national tourney, the team who is “mentally tougher” will separate themselves from the rest of the pack and win the title according to a video posted on UConn on SNY's X (formerly known as Twitter) account.
“The game was very physical on both ends of the floor. The pace was fast, both sides, trying to push it. So you feel it, but at this point of the season, you’ve got to be mentally tougher,” Bueckers said. “Everybody’s got aches and boo-boos during this time, and it’s just about who powers through it better, who’s mentally tougher.”
Fans of the Huskies, but also of college basketball in general are glad to see Bueckers back after heaps of injury spells that set her back, but now she's back and proving why she is a top player in the country. Auriemma is more than glad to see her return and revealed that when she was home, “it was killing her and tearing her apart.”
“She was always the most upbeat, positive person in the gym,” Auriemma said. “You knew that when she went home, she was a completely different person at home. You knew that it was killing her and tearing her apart.”
Auriemma details how the game expected to go on the defensive end
While the focus of the UConn women's basketball team will be on the offensive side of the ball, they started the game superbly on the defensive end only allowing Duke to score single-digits in the first half. Auriemma said after the game that the expectation was that scoring wasn't gong to come by easy Saturday night according to Tim Booth of The Boston Globe.
“Scoring was not going to be easy tonight at both ends. They weren’t going to have an easy time scoring against us, and we weren’t going to have an easy time scoring against them,” Auriemma said.
It was not always easy for the Huskies as while they were leading by as much as 20 points, the Blue Devils cut down the lead late by as little as five points. For Auriemma, he admitted that “the fatigue factor” became a big issue, but still found a way to close out the game to advance out of the Sweet Sixteen.
“The fatigue factor became a big issue, because it forced us to change our game plan,” Auriemma said. “We got up 20 because we just pushed it, pushed it, pushed it. And then I felt like, OK, we need a breather here, or we’re not going to be able to finish the game. And I think by doing that, we got a little bit; kind of took a deep breath. We were exercising, and then we decided to have a cigarette, and then we didn’t feel like exercising anymore.”
Bueckers, Huskies now take on Juju Watkins and USC in Elite Eight
Up next for the Huskies is a matchup against the No. 1 seeded USC Trojans capping off an exciting Elite Eight filled with a bevy of star players. While a lot will be focused on the rematch of last year's national championship between Caitlin Clark's Iowa vs. Angel Reese's LSU, it is also star studded between Bueckers and UConn taking on Juju Watkins and USC, but Auriemma believes that should not be the focus.
“They understand that it’s USC versus UConn, not Paige versus JuJu,” Auriemma said per The Boston Globe. “Because if we try to make it that — and this has happened a lot — somebody on their team will get 30, and then we’ll all go home and go, ‘Yeah, we lost, but we did a great job on JuJu, man. Congratulations.’”
“It’s got to be our team versus their team and see how it plays out,” Auriemma continued. “And I’m sure they’re not out there thinking, ‘Let’s spend all our energy guarding Paige.’”
The UConn women's basketball team are 32-5 on the season and finished a perfect 18-0 in conference play. The upcoming challenges are difficult, but they are looking for their first national championship since 2016.
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