UBS Arena—The UConn Huskies started the game with a lot of energy and stepped on the gas pedal as soon as they hit the hardwood at the UBS Arena.
UConn Paige Bueckers poured in 22 points and Ice Brady chipped in a career-high 17 to help No. 13 UConn beat St. John’s 92-49 on Saturday afternoon in Queens, NY in front of announced crowd 2858.
“She has the ability to make a right pass when she has to make the right pass, make an outside shot. Scoring in the lane is not something that she’s really really comfortable with, but getting better at it. She’s a really good defender. She understands the game pretty well,” Auriemma said of Brady.” Once she learns, ‘These are my strengths, these are my weaknesses.’ Don’t be afraid of them. Don’t (expletive) and sighs a bit when coach Auriemma points them out to you. Just keep learning and keep getting better and you’ll see more nights like this. That’s it.”
UConn opened up the second quarter with a 13-0 run and cruised through the next two quarters. The Huskies led 24-18 heading into the period before taking over. Bueckers scored five points and Edwards had four during the burst. The Huskies led 44-25 at the half with Bueckers going into the break with 15.
The Huskies shot 64% (38-59) from the court and 60% (9-15) from beyond the arc.
Nika Mühl wanted the task of taking on Unique Drake all to herself. Mühl was hip to hip with Drake for three quarters and shut the leading scorer for the Johnnies down.
Drake averaged a team-high 19.6 points per game before facing Mühl. The senior guard, last year’s Big East Sixth-Woman of the Year, ended with just four points on 2 of 3 shooting (a season-low in field goals attempted) against Mühl.
“She said, ‘No switches, no nothing.’ and I’m like, ‘OK,'”UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “And she just did what Nika does.”
The Huskies finished the game with 28 assists on 38 baskets (led by KK Arnold with seven), St. John’s only had nine due to the Huskies’ intense defense. UConn scored 27 points off the Red Storm’s 18 turnovers, including 19 points in the first half.
Jailah Donald scored 11 points to lead the Johnnies (10-8, 4-2), which had won six of seven coming into the contest.
“Sometimes you got to fight, you know, that type of pressure with an attack and we didn’t do enough,” St. John’s head coach Joe Tartamella said. “I thought that our quickness would be a little better for us today and it just wasn’t. Our spacing wasn’t great. You know, we just, we didn’t play the way we needed to, but they force you into looking that way. And Nika is the head of the dragon.”
UP NEXT:
UConn: at Seton Hall on Wednesday.
St. John’s: hosts Butler on Wednesday.
