STORRS, Conn. — Another game, another short-handed victory for the UConn women’s basketball team.
The No. 5 Huskies, down to seven healthy players for the second consecutive game, overcame a slow start to defeat Butler 79-39 Saturday at Gampel Pavilion. It was their 10th straight win.
UConn (17-2, 10-0 Big East) fell behind nine points in the first quarter after giving up a 13-0 run, but would outscore its opponent 75-26 the rest of the way and coast to victory.
“This team ... has probably had more to deal with to prove how strong they are than any team that I’ve coached maybe ever,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said. “I don’t think there’s been a team that I’ve had in Connecticut that’s had more to overcome than this one. Pretty remarkable, I think.”
Aaliyah Edwards led UConn with 20 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals. Lou Lopez Sénéchal was right behind her with 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Aubrey Griffin also added 17 points and seven rebounds, Dorka Juhász finished with 14 points, five rebounds and two blocks, while Nika Mühl added eight points, four rebounds and three assists.
The Huskies shot 53.7% from the field while holding their opponent to 25.9%. They scored 27 points off turnovers, won the rebounding battle 38-26, and had a 38-14 edge in the paint.
Butler put 13 players on the floor throughout the afternoon against UConn’s seven. Azzi Fudd is out indefinitely after reinjuring her right knee against Georgetown on Jan. 15. Caroline Ducharme and Ayanna Patterson remained out in concussion protocol. Patterson is the closest to returning of the trio; she was a no-contact participant in practice this week and has warmed up with the team in each of the last two games.
The Huskies made their first two shots of the afternoon, but things quickly went off kilter from there. They turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions and went scoreless for nearly five minutes, allowing Butler to go on its 13-0 run. They trailed the visiting team 13-4 at the first media timeout with 4:17 left in the first quarter.
“You could see it coming,” Auriemma said. “I knew that once we got some movement and once we got some flow that we would be OK.”
Griffin drained a 3-pointer from the left corner less than a minute later to break UConn’s scoring drought. That basket sparked a 6-0 run for the Huskies as they held the Bulldogs scoreless for the rest of the quarter. Still, they trailed 13-10 after the first — the fewest points they’ve scored in the opening frame all season — and had as many field goals as turnovers (four).
UConn turned things around in the second thanks in large part to the efforts of Lopez Sénéchal. The graduate wing scored baskets on back-to-back possessions to tie things at 16 with 7:49 left. Griffin then hit a pull-up jumper to give the Huskies back the lead, and Lopez Sénéchal weaved through the defense and scored an and-one bucket after that.
With a 3-pointer from Juhász followed by a layup from Edwards off an assist from Lopez Sénéchal, the Huskies were on a 13-1 run and firmly back in control. They led 25-17 midway through the quarter, forcing Butler, which hadn’t scored a field goal in nearly four minutes, to call time out.
“Whenever things are not going well for us, I try to get the ball in her hands as much as possible, as many places and as many ways as I possibly can,” Auriemma said of Lopez Sénéchal. “She’s become a pretty decent passer and she doesn’t back off from mixing it up. She’s getting better defensively. All the things that we need her to be, she has been all those things.”
The Bulldogs managed two shots at the free-throw line, but the Huskies didn’t allow them anything else for the rest of the period.
UConn entered the break on an 11-0 run, once again behind the play of Lopez Sénéchal, who scored six of the team’s points during that span. She had 14 points, six rebounds and four assists as the Huskies led 36-19 at halftime.
The Huskies outscored Butler 26-6 in the second quarter, holding them to make just 1 of 11 shots from the field. Meanwhile, they made 71.4% of their own shots in the period, a huge improvement from 28.6% in the opening frame.
“They just kept hitting, they were hot in the beginning, so we just were taking away those shots and forcing them out of rhythm for their offense,” Edwards said. “And then it just led to us having a better flow offensively.”
Lopez Sénéchal opened the second half with a shot at the charity stripe. Mühl swiped the ball away from Butler’s Trinity White and took it coast to coast for layup after that, extending UConn’s lead to 20 points and forcing a Butler timeout.
Griffin toughed her way to and-one bucket shortly after, further frustrating first-year Butler head coach Austin Parkinson. He was issued a technical with a little over seven minutes left and Griffin made both shots at the free-throw line. Edwards then came up with a steal-and-score to further pad the lead, up 48-21.
The Huskies led 61-30 at the end of the third quarter, the Bulldogs’ once nine-point lead seeming like ancient history. The win was all but assured from there, but UConn ended the game on a 9-0 run for good measure.
In the midst of a stretch of five games in 11 days, the Huskies are back at Gampel Pavilion on Monday for a matchup with DePaul. The game will tip-off at 7 p.m. on SNY.
“It’s gonna be a big test for us, but we’re prepared,” Edwards said. “Even though we don’t have our full team, we really just have to play to our strengths and to not let down and just be fighters. But I think we’re just going to look at it by taking one game at a time, and once we get the one dub then just move on to the next.”
