Paige Bueckers takes over to supply No. 2 UConn to win No. 1 South Carolina in OT

Geno Auriemma, UConn’s women’s basketball coach, likes to make agreements with other sports, which is how famous running Jim Brown came to the fore when Auriemma talked about freshman sensation Paige Bueckers.

Bueckers had her third consecutive game of 30 points or more – something no other UConn player has ever done – when her 31 points lifted the No. 2 Huskies over No. 1 South Carolina 63-59 in extra Monday night at Storrs, Connecticut. The 5-foot-11 guard scored the Huskies’ last 13 points, including all nine in the extra period, playing all 45 minutes. She made 14 of the 26 shots from the field and had 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals.

“She’s very slow, and I say that with a high degree of appreciation,” Auriemma said. She’s taking her time … she’s like Jim Brown used to run. When she gets the ball, she says, ‘Should I go to that hole, that hole, that … what’s the best decision for me right now? She waits until the very last minute and nothing rushes her, so you can’t get her to play faster than she wants to play.

“If you can shoot as well as she can … she just has a lot of confidence in her ability. If she can get one, she thinks it will work. attention she gets every night. She’s just fine. “

This game didn’t become a matchup of the two top-ranked teams until Monday afternoon, when the Associated Press poll came out. Eleven-time National Champion UConn has competed in many of these competitions since reaching national status in the 1990s. Even though the Huskies are 14-1, this isn’t a powerhouse team like many UConns in the past; even Auriemma would say that.

But it does have a superstar freshman who skillfully scores on screens and steps forward in the greatest moments as an old veteran. Bueckers, who was the # 1 recruit in the 2020 class, leads the Huskies in scoring (21.1 PPG), assists (5.6 APG) and steals (2.6 SPG). She shoots 56.9% from the field and 55.6% from a 3-point range.

UConn has a wealth of past superstars who have also had notable freshman seasons, including Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart over the past 20 years, all of whom became the MVP in the WNBA. However, none of them played on a team with six other freshmen, as is Bueckers. It means it’s her team in a way it wasn’t for those other freshman superstars. She gets a huge spotlight and has excelled even beyond expectations so far.

“She’s a player,” said Dawn Staley, the South Carolina coach. “She takes big pictures when her number is called over and over.”

But if at the end of the regulation the Gamecocks had taken one of four shots they had on the basket – Destanni Henderson’s jersey was short, Victaria Saxton missed a putback, followed by Aliyah Boston’s two missed putback tries – Bueckers wouldn’t do that. have been the story of the night.

The Gamecocks will regret their missed layups, which ruined their normally deadly transition play, missed free throws (they went 8 of 15) and turnovers (21). They kept the Huskies 24 points below their season average of 87.1, kept them at just 2 of 15 from behind the arc, and beat them 52-39.

South Carolina finished the 2019/20 season at No. 1 and started in the same place this season, before losing to NC State on December 3. First-place replacement for the Gamecocks, Stanford, slumped after losing over overtime in Colorado. on January 17 and Louisville took over at No. 1. When NC State beat Louisville last Monday, South Carolina rose to No. 1 again in this week’s poll.

But it will be a short stay, because the mistakes of the Gamecocks and the big shots of Bueckers they did on Monday. The second of the Huskies’ 3-pointers came from Bueckers with 13 seconds to go, hit the edge, bounced high in the air and then fell through the net.

“It felt good when it left my hand,” said Bueckers, who missed her other five three-point tries. “But yes, I would say it was a very nice jump.”

It was such a night for her, but it has already become a normal thing, only 14 games in her college career [she missed one game with an ankle sprain]. Bueckers also had a 3-pointer with 28 seconds to go against Tennessee on January 21, which was the dagger shot of that 67-61 win.

“It’s still crazy to me,” said Bueckers of how her UConn career got started. “Just the blessings I’ve been given, just the opportunities I’ve been given. It’s all so crazy to me that here at my dream school I play big games like this with a great team and technical staff. Day, every second, every minute, I’m super grateful to be here. “