NEW YORK – The No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team dominated No. 22 Louisville right away in the Women’s Champions Classic on Saturday, defeating the Cardinals 85-52 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Freshman Sarah Strong scored more than 20 points in her second straight game, adding 21 points to go along with eight rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal against Louisville. The No. 1 recruit in the class of 2024 was UConn’s most efficient shooter, shooting 8 of 10 from the field and 3 of 5 from 3-point range.

“Sarah brings a dimension that we haven’t had in any post player, and we’ve had some really, really good ones, don’t get me wrong,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I don’t know that anyone has ever had the offensive ability that Sarah has since (Breanna Stewart) has been here. They’re completely different players: They’re built differently, they play the game differently, but they’ve accomplished broadly the same things… Add Sarah to the mix and you see a Final Four team from last year that’s gotten a lot better is.”

Star guard Azzi Fudd looked like the best version of himself in just her second start of the season, finishing with 6 of 10 from the field and 18 points, including a team-high four 3-pointers.

The Huskies got off to an electric start on offense, starting their scoring drive with a 3-pointer from Fudd, assisted by Paige Bueckers in transition. Strong then followed Fudd’s three-pointer with one of his own and the Huskies went 5 of 9 from the field in the first five minutes of the game. UConn ended the first quarter on a 10-0 run when Fudd hit her second 3-pointer just before the buzzer, and most of the run came in the final two minutes with Bueckers on the bench.

The superstar point guard went 0-for-6 from the field in the first half, but led the team with six rebounds and added four assists, including a second for Fudd, who finished with a buzzer-beater 3-pointer Huskies went into halftime leading by 25.

Thanks to Strong, who had 16 points and five rebounds in the first half and shot 6 of 8 from the field, UConn barely missed Bueckers’ usual performance. Sophomore defender Ashlynn Shade also had one of her most efficient performances of the season, starting with nine points before halftime on 4-for-5 shooting.

“(Strong) has other really good players around him,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “As good as Sarah is and as talented as she is, our number one goal was to stop and contain Paige. The nice thing about her is that she’s at the top of the scouting report, but your first is Paige… and then Azzi might be No. 2. So she’s a great player, but our first and second best defenders have tried on a few others be. To her credit, she fired shots. You still have to do them, but we haven’t done a particularly good job of making it difficult at all.”

The Huskies went nearly three minutes without a field goal early in the second quarter, but also held Louisville scoreless for nearly three minutes and managed to have a chance at the foul line. Bueckers scored her first point on a free throw midway through the second period, and the Huskies went 7-for-10 from the charity stripe in the first half.

Early in the third quarter, Bueckers found her shot, hitting a layup and a 3-pointer on consecutive possessions for her first two field goals of the game. Fudd’s hand also remained hot with five points in three minutes, but left the field with a team sports coach with six minutes left in the third after a collision with a defender. Fudd returned a few minutes later and gave the thumbs up to her teammates on the bench, but didn’t report again for the rest of the game as the Huskies held a comfortable lead.

Fudd was plagued by injuries throughout her college career and never played more than 25 games in a season. She was sidelined in 2023-24 by a torn right ACL and medial meniscus tear after appearing in just two games, and she played in her first game since the injury in UConn’s win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Nov. 20.

“She attracts the strangest things,” Auriemma said. “She got into an awkward situation and someone landed on her or fell or something. She was walking around, she was fine, and it didn’t look like a worst-case scenario that we were all crossing our fingers and hoping (it wasn’t). We’ll know more when we get back, but I hope I’m right, that it’s not the worst-case scenario we’ve seen so many times before.”

Even after Fudd left the game, UConn continued to dominate with a 13-3 run over six minutes in the third quarter. Auriemma relied on his younger players for most of the second half, playing just 26 minutes total against Bueckers in the win, and the less experienced lineups weren’t as effective as the game went on.

The bench was led by Shade, who shot 6 of 9 with 13 points and four rebounds, but the Huskies allowed a 7-0 Louisville run to end the third quarter and an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter that Strong eventually lost with a 3-pointer. UConn gave up 19 points to the Cardinals in the fourth quarter after holding them under 15 in each of the previous three quarters.

Originally published: December 7, 2024 at 11:46 pm EST