Once the UConn women’s basketball team began hitting from 3-point range against Xavier on Sunday, the only thing the Musketeers could do to slow them down was hope for a miss.
The No. 1 Huskies cruised to a 104-39 rout of Xavier in their Big East opener on the road behind a 50% shooting performance beyond the arc. The team sank a season-high 18 3-pointers with three different players making at least four and six finishing with double-digit points.
Sophomore guard Allie Ziebell tied her career-high, hitting five shots from deep to finish with a season-high 16 points in 16 minutes on the court. Junior guard Ashlynn Shade, who has struggled shooting from range this season, also had her best game of the year with 14 points going 4-for-7 on 3-pointers, adding a pair of steals and assists.
On top of the breakout performances from Shade and Ziebell, star guard Azzi Fudd had another elite offensive showing, with 12 points going 4-for-7 from 3-point range. It is the first time in Fudd’s college career she has hit four-plus 3-pointers in four consecutive appearances. Superstar sophomore Sarah Strong logged 14 points plus a team-high eight assists and six steals, while sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel added 10 points with a team-high seven rebounds.
The Huskies came out sluggish after a weeklong break between games, missing three consecutive 3-point attempts in a single possession and beginning 0-for-5 from the field. But Xavier had an equally poor shooting performance in the opening minutes, and UConn quickly began to capitalize on the Musketeers’ mistakes. Strong scored the first points of the game on a fast break layup off a steal and assist from Arnold, and the Huskies went on to force 11 turnovers that they converted into 15 of their 22 points in the quarter.
Fudd sank UConn’s first 3-pointer two and a half minutes into the game, opening the floodgates for a 13-2 Huskies run. Xavier didn’t get a field goal on the board for nearly seven minutes, and the Huskies held them to just nine points in the first.
UConn’s offense began to roll in the second quarter as Fudd and Shade caught fire from 3-point range. After the team’s ugly start beyond the arc, Fudd and Shade shot a combined 4-for-4 over the first four minutes of the second to put the Huskies on an 11-0 run and break open a 20-point lead. Shade stayed hot going 4-for-5 for 12 points in the second alone, and sophomore guard Allie Ziebell added a late 3-point make to send UConn into halftime leading 49-25. The team also forced another seven turnovers, though Xavier also found more offensive success in the second hitting both their attempts from 3-point range and improving to 46.2% from the field.
The Huskies kept up the defensive pressure in the second half, finishing with 42 points off of 31 forced turnovers, and they held Xavier to just made field goals after halftime. Ziebell powered the offense with four of her five made 3-pointers in the third quarter. The sophomore guard checked in with five minutes left in the quarter and hit all of her shots from beyond the arc over a two-minute stretch.
UConn held the Musketeers scoreless for more than four minutes to end the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run, and it held leading scorer Mariyah Noel to just nine points without a single made field goal. Every Huskies player who saw the court scored except for redshirt senior Caroline Ducharme. Freshman Gandy Malou-Mamel recorded her first collegiate points in her second game appearance, and fellow rookie Kelis Fisher scored a season-best six.
