By the end of the first quarter against DePaul on Wednesday night, UConn women’s basketball star Azzi Fudd was outscoring the home team single-handedly.
After she spent most of January in a slump, the redshirt senior sharpshooter started 5-for-5 from the field at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. She dropped 13 points and helped hold DePaul to just 10 with three steals on the defensive end, powering the Huskies to a 21-point lead at the end of the first.
Fudd went on to finish with 25 points on 10-for-17 shooting with four made 3-pointers, leading No. 1 UConn to an 86-40 rout of the Blue Demons. It was Fudd’s first time scoring 25-plus in back-to-back games this season after she put up 27 points in a win over No. 19 Tennessee on Sunday.
All-American sophomore Sarah Strong was quietly dominant once again, stuffing the stat sheet with 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals in just 20 minutes on the court. She and Fudd hit a combined 61.5% from the field and accounted for more than half of UConn’s scoring before sitting out the fourth quarter.
The Huskies improved to 24-0 overall and 13-0 in the Big East with the win. It was their 40th consecutive victory and 60th over a conference opponent. The team also extended its streak of wins by 25-plus to 19 games, the longest streak in at least the last 25 years.
Fudd’s efficiency was contagious for the Huskies in the first quarter. After Strong missed a layup on the first attempt of the game, UConn sank 10 consecutive shots and ended the quarter on a 15-2 run. Junior guard Ashlynn Shade connected for the team’s first made 3-pointer, and Fudd knocked down a pair on back-to-back possessions to improve the Huskies to a perfect 3-for-3 from deep.
“It’s really fun. I get the ball and it’s like oh yep, flip it, yep,” point guard KK Arnold said on the radio postgame. “Having (Azzi) go on those runs, it really helps us and it just really keeps us going as well when we’re having droughts or anything.”
But UConn’s offense went cold in the second, outscoring the Blue Demons just 13-10. Fudd recorded her first miss of the game early in the quarter, and the Huskies came up short on three straight possessions before center Jana El Alfy hit a layup for the team’s first points. They shot a combined 1-for-5 on 3-pointers, and Strong was the only player to make multiple field goals in the second.
The Huskies’ smothering defense kept DePaul from making a dent in their comfortable lead, holding the Blue Demons to just 28.6% from the field and forcing 14 turnovers in the first half. DePaul went scoreless for more than five minutes during the second quarter while UConn was also struggling to put points on the board, and the Blue Demons couldn’t find comfortable shots taking 14 3-pointers and connecting just twice.
But DePaul managed to limit the Huskies’ opportunities in transition after the first quarter, holding them to just six points off turnovers and three on fastbreaks in the second. UConn also gave up four uncharacteristic turnovers in the quarter, frustrating coach Geno Auriemma.
“I think we have five turnovers trying to throw the ball into the post. I don’t get it, so we need to clean that up,” Auriemma told the truTV broadcast at halftime. “We’re moving pretty well without the ball, so if we could just get the ball moving instead of forcing it inside … I just get bothered by the turnovers that are kind of mindless.”
But the Huskies cleaned things up after halftime, giving up just four turnovers in the remainder of the game and shooting 56.3% from the field as a team. Fudd and Strong continued to propel UConn in the second half, accounting for all of the team’ points on an early 12-2 run. Fudd put up 10 of the team’s 20 points in the third quarter, draining another pair of 3-pointers
Arnold kicked off the fourth quarter with three straight layups in transition, and the starting point guard finished with 12 points plus a team-high six assists in the victory. Despite its slumps, the Huskies’ offensive ball movement was as good as it’s been all year with 30 assists on 37 made field goals. Sophomore point guard Kayleigh Heckel also logged six assists on top of nine points and four rebounds.
UConn got contributions from every player who saw the court, finishing with 10 different scorers. The Huskies’ reserves held DePaul without points for the final three minutes of the fourth quarter, and the Blue Demons hit just seven shots in the second half.
“They work very hard on the defensive end of the floor, and they take a lot of pride in creating havoc out there,” DePaul coach Jill Pizzotti said on the radio pregame. “What’s impressive anytime you watch a Geno team is, regardless of the score, they’re playing hard … His teams are always doing that, but he’s got a special team this year, and the depth is what’s really impressive.”
