No. 3 UConn women avoid 1st 2-game skid since '93, top UCLA
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) â Coming off a humbling loss without injured star Paige Bueckers, UConn coach Geno Auriemma hoped his team would learn a lesson.
The third-ranked Huskies struggled again minus Bueckers, but managed to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time since 1993, holding off UCLA 71-61 Saturday.
On Thursday, in their first game without her, the Huskies fell to unranked Georgia Tech and were held to a season-low 44 points.
âThat particular loss the other night probably told a lot of players that youâre not good enough right now with the way youâre playing basketball and told our team that youâre not playing as a team,â Auriemma said.
âAnd you can use any excuse you want. Well, we donât half our team. And thatâs not either here or there. You can still play as a team even though youâre missing key components of your team. So I think the change was to try and play more as a team," he said.
Dorka Juhasz shot 5 of 5 for 16 points with 16 rebounds and Evina Westbrook added 17 points, seven assists and seven rebounds for the Huskies (6-2) as all five starters scored in double figures.
UCLA (5-3) trailed 65-51 with 1:20 left before scoring 10 straight points, closing within four with 37 seconds to go. The Huskies pulled away after that.
âI just had that little bit of my confidence,â Juhasz said. âLast game was a hard one. All of us got together, we fought through adversity as a whole team. Itâs not just me. Everybody was great today.â
Bueckers, the reigning national player of the year, fractured her knee last Sunday in a win over Notre Dame and the school said she will be out for up to two months. She is averaging 21.2 points, 6.2 assists, and 5.5 rebounds and has accounted for 52% of the Huskiesâ offense in points or assists this season.
UConn hasnât lost two straight since March 1993, before Auriemma built the team into a perennial national power.
Charisma Osbornes led UCLA with with 26 points, while Jaelynn Penn had 10 points and seven rebounds. The Bruins fell to 0-7 overall against UConn.
The Huskies had trouble finding their rhythm at the start against UCLA and trailed by as many 11. Caroline Ducharme hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first half, capping an 11-2 run that pulled UConn within 30-28.
âThere are moments in games when someone has to make a play of some sort. You have to have the kind of players that can make those plays during those moments. Sometimes those moments are early in the game. Sometimes theyâre late in the game,â Auriemma said.
âWhat changed in the second quarter is there were more clean stops by us and being able to get out a little bit in transition and try to get some baskets early in the shot clock, around the lane. That gave us a little bit of momentum," he said.
A fast-break layup by Westbrook after a steal from Aaliyah Edwards put the Huskies ahead for good at 43-42 with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. The basket came during a 14-0 run that made it 50-42, with Juhasz scoring seven of the points.
Up by 14 points, UConn missed five straight foul shots in less than a minute as UCLA closed to 65-61 on Dominique Onuâs layup with 37 seconds left.
âWe didnât come here for moral victories. Those days are past for UCLA basketball,â UCLA coach Cori Close said. âWe came here to compete and win, and obviously weâre disappointed.â
The Huskies also are without freshman Azzi Fudd. The nationâs consensus top recruit last year is out because of a stress injury to her right foot, as is sophomore Nika MuÌhl (right foot).
âThey still have a lot of really, really good players, so I donât really feel sorry for them about that,â Close quipped.
Ducharme finished with 14 points, and Christyn Williams had 11 points, while Olivia Nelson-Ododa added 10 points and eight rebounds for UConn.
NEVER FORGET
The game was part of the Never Forget Tribute Classic at the Prudential Center in Newark, raising money for a 9/11-related charity. Itâs the first season womenâs teams competed in the event. The UCLA-UConn matchup was nationally televised on ABC, becoming the first regular-season collegiate womenâs basketball game to ever air on the network. No. 15 UConn men took on St. Bonaventure in the second game of the doubleheader.
UP NEXT
UCLA: Host Texas Southern on Thursday.
UConn: Host Louisville on Sunday.
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