No. 1 UConn Women’s Hoops sinks 18 three-pointers, buries Xavier by 65
If at first you do not succeed, try and try again.
The No. 1 UConn women’s basketball team opened Big East play shooting 0-5 from the floor. All of their misses came from downtown.
Sarah Strong, who took the game’s first shot, got the Huskies on the board with a breakaway floater in the paint. Mere moments after forcing a five-second violation, Azzi Fudd buried a three-pointer from the elbow.
Connecticut converted over 50% of its shots from beyond the arc from that point onward. The Huskies made multiple attempts from three-point land in a row on four separate occasions and missed consecutive tries just twice.
UConn buried a season-high 18 threes en route to their 104-39 victory over the Xavier Musketeers inside the Cintas Center. The Huskies last made that many three-pointers against Audi Crooks’ Iowa State Cyclones, when they set the program record with 20.
“We just kept encouraging our players to make sure that when we do have one, to keep taking it,” head coach Geno Auriemma commented postgame. “Like anything else, once they start going in, they all start going in, because people feed off each other.”
13 of the Huskies’ buckets from behind the arc came from three different players: Fudd, Allie Ziebell, and Ashlynn Shade.
Ziebell repeated the performance she had in Connecticut’s previous meeting with the Musketeers with five three-pointers. Four of those five makes came in the third quarter, and all of them came on consecutive attempts over a two-minute window. The 2024 Wisconsin Miss Basketball winner, who scored a game-high 16 points, cracked a smile after making the fourth of those buckets. The Huskies’ bench, specifically KK Arnold (nine points, five assists, five steals), went nuts following each three Ziebell made.
Shade buried seven threes in that record-setting night at Mohegan Sun Arena and also made four in one frame. The 2025 Big East Sixth Woman of the Year entered Cincinnati shooting 5-24 from downtown and nearly doubled that number in the second quarter. Shade buried one from Xavier’s bench, then made three more in successive order for 12 of her season-high 14 points.
The Final Four Most Outstanding Player rounded out the sniper squadron with four threes for all 12 points. Kayleigh Heckel, Blanca Quiñonez, Strong, and Arnold had UConn’s other five triples. Only Heckel made multiple threes among those five players, sinking two for six of her 10 points (to go with seven rebounds).
The two-time Big East Player of the Week flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 14 points, six boards and eight assists. Quiñonez made up for her three first-half fouls with three rebounds and three assists. Serah Williams did not make a three, instead attacking down low for 10 points and six boards.
The Huskies complemented their perimeter shooting with a defensive intensity that would make Nika Mühl proud. 40% of Connecticut’s offense (42 points, precisely) came from 31 Musketeers turnovers. True to form, the Huskies held Xavier to season lows in points (39), shooting percentage (21.7%), and assists (eight).
Billi Chambers’ Musketeers, who entered Sunday’s contest 4-2, showed steady signs of improvement from last season. Xavier scored 25 points against UConn in the first half, compared to 27 the entire night when they faced them in Hartford. The Musketeers collected 30 boards without Savannah White, their leading rebounder.
MacKenzie Givens and Vivien Nejasmic guided Xavier’s offense. Nejasmic, who averaged 4.8 points over her first six games, dropped 12 and added four rebounds. Givens had nine points on 4-9 shooting, six rebounds and two blocks. Ole Miss transfer Mariyah Noel earned all nine of her points at the free throw line. While she only scored three points, Meri Kanerva dished out three assists.
Five straight Huskies points followed five straight misses to open Big East play. Noel got the Musketeers on the board at the charity stripe three possessions later. Connecticut responded immediately; Williams’ swiftly executed layup sparked a 9-0 run and prompted the Musketeers’ first timeout.
Givens ended Xavier’s field goal drought with a floater, then added a triple following three Huskies’ points. Nejasmic pulled the Musketeers within nine, but Arnold’s three helped UConn end the first quarter up 22-9.
Auriemma vocally expressed his frustration over a three-second violation called on the former Wisconsin Badger. That did not faze UConn; they scored eight points off three consecutive Xavier turnovers and forced another timeout. Givens again ended the Musketeers’ offensive drought with a layup. Shade subsequently knocked down two more buckets behind the arc after Petra Oborilova landed one from downtown.
Ziebell’s first long-range bucket ended the second quarter, and Fudd’s last triple started the third. If the Indiana native took over late in the first half, then Williams dominated the opening moments of the second. The senior forward scored seven of the Huskies’ next nine points before the Musketeers burned their third timeout.
Strong crossed double figures with five straight points, but the rest of the quarter belonged to the sophomore from Wisconsin. Ziebell buried not one, not two, but four shots from behind the arc in a row. Three of those four buckets came from the corner. Heckel stretched Connecticut’s lead to 48 after three quarters with her first three-pointer with 31 seconds left.
Two 10-0 Huskies runs sandwiched an Audia Young triple in the final frame. Kelis Fisher put UConn across the century mark for the second time this season with a pullup jumper. Gandy Malou-Mamel subsequently scored her first career points as the Huskies opened conference play 1-0 for the 13th straight season.
Connecticut continues its post-Thanksgiving road trip in Tampa, next concluding its home-and-home series with the South Florida Bulls on Tuesday. Tip-off from the Yuengling Center is at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.
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