UConn, Paige Bueckers advance to Elite 8 as Duke offense goes dormant
No. 7 seed Duke, with 14 points in the third quarter against No. 2 seed UConn, managed to outscore the 13 points the Blue Devils had amassed in the first two quarters combined. And though the the Huskies offense didn’t go supernova on offensive, the consistency and lack of mistakes made all the difference.
The Huskies were paced by star guard Paige Bueckers in the 53-45 win. She finished with 24 points and at one point in the third quarter had as many points as the Blue Devils — 19. At that point, UConn held a 37-19 lead with fewer than three minutes to play in the third quarter.
Along with Bueckers, a pair of UConn teammates scored in double digures, as KK Arnold and Aaliyah Edwards each scored 12 points.
And UConn also got the win on a night when Edwards found herself in a spot of foul trouble, having to sit with four fouls early on in the second half. It didn’t matter, as the Blue Devils offense went missing.
With the win, UConn is set to face No. 1 seed USC on Monday in the Elite Eight with a trip to the Final Four on the line. That means a matchup against star freshman guard Juju Watkins, which Bueckers discussed briefly postgame.
“She’s a great player,” Bueckers told ESPN’s Angel Gray. “Tremendous scorer, a freshman at that. So she’s an awesome player. I never believed in the one on one matchups, obviously the media’s got to hype it up. But UConn vs. USC, it’ll be a great game, a great battle. So great team. So we’ll be preparing for that.”
Neither team shot the ball particularly well, though UConn did carve out a decent margin in final shooting percentage from the field, 40% to 33%. And the real culprit for the Blue Devils were turnovers. Early in the fourth quarter, Duke had already turned the ball over more than 20 times, feeding the Huskies extra possessions and costing potential points.
UConn finished with 23 points off 23 Duke turnovers.
Duke did manage to fire the offense up late in the game, shaving a UConn lead that got as to as many as 20 points down to five with under two minutes to play.
But a clutch two from Edwards and timely free throw shooting by Bueckers helped the Huskies survive a late push in the final minute and earn a trip to the Elite 8.