SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
In the words from the next University of Connecticut women’s basketball superstar, it looked good, felt good when it left her hand, then it hit the backboard, bounced up high and came back down into the basket.
Yup, might as well hear it from the 5-foot-11 freshman phenom, point guard, shooting guard, all-everything, Paige Bueckers, who took over when it counted most in Monday night‘s 63-59 anticipated match-up of top-ranked, visiting South Carolina and No. 2 UConn at Gamphel Pavilion in Storrs.
Bueckers, Player of the Year her senior season at Hopkins High in Minnesota, is more than ready to take the Huskies to their record 12th national championship. She is the engineer of a 12-player roster that includes seven freshmen, three sophomores, and two juniors. What can’t she do, well no one has figured it out yet, for if one part of her game is not perfection, she can turn it on with other parts. She has just too much for the opposition to contend with.
Crafty No. 5 is equally adept at tossing in 3s, perimeter shots, driving to the basket, handing out assists, stealing the ball, scrubbing the boards for rebounds, and providing the needed leadership for a young team that had never before played together.
“She plays at the same pace the entire game” says head coach Geno (the genus) Auriemma. “There is no slowing down for her. She has eyes on everything and can look one way and find a teammate inside for a layup. And I’m always surprised when she shoots and it doesn’t go in.”
Well, there she was, up 60-59 with only 10 seconds left in overtime, and with no fans in the stands at the usually packed home court on campus. The Gamecocks had just missed a jumper from the side, and while Bueckers now had the ball, Auriemma reminded her the clock was winding down, so she came down the court, stopped in 3-point land and fired up the clincher, which as she described, was as dramatic as it sounded.
That was just a piece of her heroics. She scored all of her team’s seven points in OT, and last of its final 13. With her side down 54-50 with 43 seconds in regulation, she broke to the right of the basket and tossed in a soft jumper. South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley called a time out, but Bueckers stole the inboards pass, again sped toward the basket, and stopped and again tossed in a short jumper.
Now it was tied. The Gamecocks had a 5-second call, but the Huskies’ 6-foot-1 sophomore forward Aubrey Griffin lost control of the ball and it went out of bounds. Again, the visitors called time. It was still 54-all and they had 13 seconds to win the game. But now it was the UConn defense that played its part. Five shots went up, two by 6-5 sophomore Aliyah Boston, and none connected as the Huskies blocked two of them and the buzzer sounded to bring the extra session.
Then it was Bueckers scoring nine and the Gamecocks five, and the new No. 1 was this well-balanced team that was ranked first seventh in the pre-season, then sixth after the first when it had to postpone four games due to coronavirus pandemic issues, When it finally took the court, it advanced to 4th-ranked, then third, then second when previously undefeated Louisville lost to 2nd-ranked North Carolina State after the Wolfpack lost by 13 in overtime to unranked Virginia Tech. Then when NC State was upset by state-rival North Carolina, South Carolina became No. 1 and UConn No. 2.
Staley, a very good point guard back in her day, and whose Gamecocks won the NCAA title in 2018, and after the next season came to an abrupt halt by the COVID-19 threat, had this to say about Bueckers.
“She’s quite a player. She makes big shots when her number is called time and again. She has the whole game, sets up her teammates, hustles for loose balls, is extra quick, and I can say she’s already a growing legend.”
Bueckers became the first of the Huskies’ long list of elite players since the 1995 campaign to score 30 or more points in four straight games. This time she had the game-high 31 points while taking down down four boards and dishing out five assists. She was good on 14-of-26 tries from the floor. She picked up her third personal foul in the third quarter on what she thought was a charge by Boston, but no more.
Buckers’ teammate 6-5 Olivia Nelson-Ododa, who had six points, seven rebounds, five assists and four shot blocks, committed her fourth late in the third quarter, but so did Boston, who turned in a team-high 17 points and brought down a game-high 15 boards.
For UConn, 6-3 freshman Aaliyah Edwards added eight points, five rebounds and blocked two shots. Freshman 5-10 guard Nika Muhl made the first of two Husky 3s before Bueckers threw hers in in the final seconds, and came away with eight points, while 5-7 South Carolina junior Destanni Henderson contributed 11 points and three assists.
The Gamecocks had more rebounds, 52-39, but not once did they score off their prized transition game. But UConn had more assists, 15-7, more steals, more blocks, 8-4, less turnovers, 17-21. It was 14-10 South Carolina after one quarter, 26-26 at the intermission, 47-41 Huskies after three, and then Bueckers took over midway through the fourth quarter and then some.
“Heck,” Geno said. “There’s not much you can say about Paige. If you’ve seen it once, you’re going to see it again. She’s that player who everyone would want to have. She’s puts fourth Herculean efforts, and she’s that player who comes along and just brings her big game. And she’s not selfish, and she’s totally popular with her teammates. All we need now are fans in the stands at our home games, because they will love her.”
For South Carolina, it falls to 15-2, previously losing 64-58 to North Carolina State. UConn is 14-1, having lost 90-87 at Arkansas.
It plays next at home Wednesday against Seton Hall in Big East play, then hits the road for four starts. But it is unbeaten in returning to its former conference where it has won 95 consecutive starts after also going undefeated in the American Athletic Conference. The Gamecocks play in the stronger Atlantic Coast Conference, which appears to now having the Huskies remain in the top of the polls until the post-season rolls around.
Here it’s not roll Tide roll, it’s roll UConn roll.
