No. 21 Creighton women’s basketball lost in blowout fashion Wednesday, falling 94-50 to No. 12 UConn.
The Huskies opened up an early lead and dominated the first half before cruising to the win. Here are three takeaways from the game.
UConn Cruises Behind Stellar Paige Bueckers Showing
UConn entered this season ranked second in the nation in the AP Top 25.
The Huskies dropped three games early, all to current top-10 squads, and haven’t been able to return to the top 10 since.
They’ve made a strong case to do so recently with back-to-back thrashings of Marquette and now Creighton.
UConn jumped out to a 7-3 lead early, hitting a three and getting four points inside from Aaliyah Edwards. Creighton made it a one-possession game a couple times after that, but a 14-4 run gave the visitors a double-digit lead they wouldn’t come close to relinquishing.
“I’m going to need something a lot stronger than water to digest that one,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery joked postgame. “That was super disappointing… By the second quarter I thought they took our will.”
While the Huskies started strong offensively — scoring 53 first-half points on 65.5% shooting — their defense stood out. They disrupted the Bluejay offense completely, forcing the home team to settle for bad, rushed shots and turning turnovers into transition buckets.
“I think the most glaring thing for me is just toughness,” guard Lauren Jensen said postgame. “It hurts my pride that they just out-hustled us, and like [Flanery] said, they did that in every area and that’s just unacceptable and if we want to be the team that we know we can be, we need to be better.”
As reserves played more minutes in the second half with the result decided, the Bluejays shot 4-for-25 from the field. They struggled to accomplish much on either end all night.
Multiple UConn players put up impressive statlines, but star guard Paige Bueckers led the way. She finished with 24 points, five rebounds, seven assists and four steals while turning the ball over just once.
Sellout Crowd in Sokol
The top-25 matchup brought a program-record crowd of 2,374 to D.J. Sokol arena, a significant portion in attendance to watch the Huskies.
Fans hadn’t really been able to see Bueckers play in the arena until Wednesday night. For the past two seasons, that was because of injury. In her freshman year, she did play against the Bluejays in Omaha, but COVID precautions kept that crowd small in early 2021.
Plenty of Bueckers jerseys could be seen among the crowd. Even as his team was responsible for some of it, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma praised the atmosphere at the game.
“I think that Creighton certainly has a style of play that’s appealing,” he said. “I was saying before the game, I said, ‘This is a huge home-court advantage, this court.’ You fill this place up, it’s great, and I was really proud of the fact that that’s what happened today.”
Reserves Make Some Plays
The blowout did give the team’s younger players an opportunity to get significant minutes against a high-quality program.
There were some highlights from the bench throughout the contest. Kennedy Townsend put up 14 points in the team’s last game against St. John’s, and didn’t score today. Still, she made plays, such as forcing a turnover by tying up Bueckers for a jump ball on a drive to the rim.
Kiani Lockett and Brittany Harshaw scored all of their points from the free-throw line, making nine of their 10 combined attempts.
The only bench player to make a field goal was true freshman McKayla Miller, and her first was a memorable one. She shook a defender with a behind-the-back dribble and drove through contact for an and-one layup. Miller scored another shot in close later in the second half as well.
While those two plays don’t make for a completely outstanding game, she accounted for half the team’s made field goals after halftime and showed what she’s capable of. The minutes now could be important for a team still looking to build depth.
