MILWAUKEE — Geno Auriemma stood silent in front of the UConn women’s basketball team’s bench with his arms crossed, watching stone-faced as Marquette senior Lee Volker sank a fastbreak jump shot that cut his squad’s lead to just three points midway through the second quarter.
A minute later, an and-1 from Golden Eagles star Skylar Forbes tied the game. With just over five minutes remaining until halftime, there was suddenly a level of pressure on the unbeaten Huskies that they had yet to face in a Big East matchup all season.
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But No. 1 UConn responded, putting together an 11-0 run that broke the game open and gave the team some desperately needed momentum heading into the locker room. When the Huskies returned to the court, they looked more like the team favored to win its second straight NCAA championship, controlling the second half to earn a 71-56 victory over Marquette at the Al McGuire Center on Saturday.
The win improved the Huskies to 27-0 on the season and 16-0 in Big East play, though it ended the team’s 21-game streak of wins by 25-plus points.
Star guard Azzi Fudd kept UConn alive amid its ugly start, knocking down five 3-pointers for 17 points in the first half and finishing with 25 on 50% shooting from the field. She also anchored the team defensively with four steals. Junior KK Arnold, who attended high school less than 25 miles from Milwaukee, had an impressive showing in front of her hometown crowd with 10 points, a career-high nine assists and two steals.
Some of the team’s early struggles were due to a difficult day for superstar Sarah Strong, who started 1-for-9 from the field and ended the first half with just three points and a single rebound. But the sophomore forward caught fire in the third quarter, scoring 15 on 6-for-7 shooting to finish with 22 points plus three blocks and three steals.
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Slow starts aren’t unusual for the the Huskies, but Saturday’s was perhaps their worst of the season, going more than four minutes without putting points on the board. Marquette guard Jaidynn Mason opened the game on five straight points, and though UConn’s defense managed to keep the Golden Eagles scoreless for several minutes, the team couldn’t find any semblance of an offensive rhythm.
Fudd finally ended the scoring drought seconds after giving up a turnover on a travel, quickly getting the ball back after a defensive rebound and immediately draining a 3-pointer from the left wing. Fudd connected again from beyond the arc off a steal two minutes later to give UConn its first lead of the game.
The Huskies led by as many as eight points early in the second quarter, but after Marquette tied the game at 20, the team seemed to finally find some urgency on both ends of the court. UConn caused Marquette turnovers on four straight possessions to fuel the 11-0 run, and it ended the half with a 12-point lead and 17 points of off 15 forced turnovers.
Marquette hung with UConn through much of the third quarter, but there was little the Golden Eagles could do to slow the Huskies down once Strong found her shot. The star forward accounted for all but six of UConn’s points in the third, and she scored seven straight points in the final two minutes of the quarter to keep the Huskies ahead by double digits.
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Fudd hit a layup at the third quarter buzzer to make it a 13-point game, and UConn stayed hot early in the fourth. The Huskies once again built momentum from the defensive end, forcing three turnover in 43 seconds that gave them their first 20-point lead. For the first time in conference play, Fudd stayed on the court for almost the entire fourth quarter and led UConn with another four points and two steals in the final frame.
Though UConn escaped Milwaukee with the win, its performance on the boards was a major issue. The team got outrebounded 42-29, and Marquette nearly doubled the Huskies on the offensive glass, 14-8.
