Strong’s triple-double watch helps No. 1 UConn Women’s Hoops best Buckeyes in Hartford
From the time the gates opened Sunday morning to the final buzzer, PeoplesBank Arena became the house of encores. The No. 1 UConn women’s basketball team again unveiled its 12th national championship banner, this time with multiple WNBA coaches present.
UConn again dueled with a Power Four opponent in a tense first quarter. The Huskies again broke away in the second and secured a 32-point victory.
But no repeated performance garnered more attention than that of Sarah Strong’s. The reigning Big East Player of the Week recorded 21 points, nine rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals at Gampel Pavilion.
Strong one-upped all of those numbers against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The 6-foot-2 sophomore flirted with a triple-double with 29 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. She complemented that with three blocks, five steals, and a plus-minus of plus-41. Heck, she even dove for a loose ball in front of her team’s bench.
Strong’s sensational encore guided the Huskies in their 100-68 triumph over the Buckeyes.
“Not a single thing that she does surprises me. What surprises me is how simple she makes the game look,” head coach Geno Auriemma commented about the Big East Preseason Player of the Year postgame. “If she wanted to, this would be a normal night for her.”
The same contest started as a back-and-forth shootout. Both programs made over 50% of their shots from the floor with nine assists on 21 made field goals and seven three-pointers. Over those last three quarters, however, the Huskies held the Buckeyes to 17-49 shooting. Connecticut collected 14 steals, forced 24 Ohio State turnovers and limited their opponent to just seven assists on 27 baskets the entire afternoon.
Blanca Quiñonez had her breakout game in Hartford. From her presence in the paint to her end-to-end quickness, the Huskies’ first South American player looked much more comfortable. Those efforts yielded 18 points on 7-11 shooting, four rebounds and two steals in 23 minutes. Quiñonez also committed five turnovers, something partially attributed to her fast style of play, but Sunday’s outing provided an excellent starting point.
Azzi Fudd, who entered Sunday’s game battling a cold, did not score in that high-flying first quarter. Once the graduate guard made her first field goal, a corner three, she could not be stopped. Fudd made seven of her last 10 attempts from the floor for 19 points and complemented it with a career-high-tying seven assists. The former No. 1 recruit did not credit any mechanical changes to explain her outing, instead highlighting the work the group around her accomplished.
“It started on defense. Once we started getting stops, I feel like that made our transition game a little bit easier,” Fudd explained. “Getting stops gave us that momentum, that confidence [that] we needed.”
Serah Williams and Ashlynn Shade rounded out the double-digit scorers. Williams picked up 12 and grabbed three boards in just 14 minutes. Shade, meanwhile, had one of her better all-around performances with 10 points, four assists, two steals and two rebounds. KK Arnold did not score but had five dimes and a takeaway.
The Buckeyes played their way into a ranking in next week’s top 25 poll, despite the defeat. Ohio State led for 2:42 and handed the Huskies their largest deficit (four points) of the year.
The Cambridge sisters further contributed to that case. Jaloni, Ohio State’s leading scorer, picked up a team-high 17 points and grabbed six rebounds. Kennedy, the older sibling, had 10 points, with all of her made shots coming from downtown. Boston College transfer T’yana Todd also shot 50% from the floor for 12 points. Chance Gray and Kylee Kitts each had nine, with the latter complementing her offense with 10 boards and three blocks.
Whatever the Huskies did, the Buckeyes essentially imitated over the game’s first three minutes. That all changed when Gray buried a triple and J. Cambridge added a jumper 24 seconds later to put Ohio State up 14-10.
UConn countered that deficit with a 7-0 run, then the Cambridge sisters put the Buckeyes back up two after the media timeout. Back-to-back three-point plays and two more Quiñonez layups had the Huskies leading 27-24 after one.
Connecticut’s defense checked in for its shift in the second quarter. The Huskies held OSU to just three shots and blocked two of them over the first three minutes. Fudd got on the board from downtown, and a second triple from Strong resulted in a Buckeyes timeout.
Ohio State stayed within nine following the stoppage while limiting UConn to four Williams points. But the Huskies locked down after two Todd free throws made it a nine-point game.
Connecticut turned three of the Buckeyes’ seven turnovers over the first half’s final five minutes into eight points. That defense, which again allowed just three shot attempts, and the Virginia native’s three-point prowess gave the Huskies a 20-point halftime lead.
Fudd struck again from near UConn’s bench to open the second half. The younger Cambridge put the ball through Williams’ legs and secured the three-point play a minute later. As if that was not enough, Quiñonez countered with a three-pointer that bounced off the glass and rattled around the rim before going through.
The Huskies’ frontcourt stretched the lead to 32 before most of the starters checked out. Watson spearheaded OSU’s response, a 13-2 run that lasted until Strong picked up another tough three-point play. The National Freshman of the Year added two more layups to match her career high in points as the third quarter closed.
Strong spent her final six minutes crashing the glass, grabbing five of her 13 rebounds on the day. Both she and Fudd received tremendous applause when they exited. Kelis Fisher’s free throws put the Huskies across the century mark and sealed their first win over the Buckeyes since 2019.
UConn next takes on the other team in college sports’ most heated rivalry, the No. 14 Michigan Wolverines. Tip-off from Mohegan Sun Arena Friday is at 8 p.m. on Fox.
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