The UConn women’s basketball team dominated Butler in its final Big East road game of the 2024-25 season on Saturday in Indianapolis, routing the Bulldogs 86-47 behind the second double-double in three games for superstar Paige Bueckers.
Bueckers, who had her first 10-assist game of the season at South Carolina less than a week ago, logged the stat line for just the second time this season with 23 points and 10 assists plus three steals while shooting 10-for-16 at Butler. It was Bueckers’ 14th 20-point game of the season and her second in a row after putting up 23 at Seton Hall on Wednesday.
Freshman phenom Sarah Strong came just shy of her own double-double with 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists plus two blocks and two steals.
But perhaps the biggest moment of the game for UConn came long after the result was decided with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Redshirt junior Caroline Ducharme, who had not appeared in a game since November 2023 due to a series of head and neck injuries, checked in against the Bulldogs and grabbed a rebound in her two minutes on the floor.
UConn’s first quarter was reminiscent of its start at Seton Hall: The Huskies struggled to hit shots early and fell behind 6-4 before responding with a 7-0 run to take a lead that they never gave up for the rest of the game. The Huskies leaned on their stars to establish momentum with Bueckers and Strong combining for UConn’s first 11 points, and the team maintained that energy through the end of the first. Bueckers powered the offense with nine points and three assists, but the team was a force defensively with five first-quarter turnovers, and they held Butler scoreless for a combined seven minutes with just four made field goals.
The Huskies didn’t let up the smothering effort, keeping the Bulldogs without points for the first three minutes of the second quarter extending a 23-3 run that began in the final two minutes of the first. Butler was forced to take a timeout three minutes into the quarter after Bueckers became UConn’s first double-digit scorer off a steal by Aubrey Griffin, but the Huskies continued to pull away even after freshman Lily Zeinstra ended the Bulldogs’ drought with a 3-pointer.
UConn ended the second quarter on another 13-2 run, scoring eight straight points over the final two minutes to enter halftime ahead 42-17. Bueckers found her 3-point shot in the second hitting 2-for-3 after starting 0-for-2, and the redshirt senior’s second three moved her to No. 6 all-time on UConn’s career scoring list. Bueckers was approaching a double-double at halftime with 17 points and six assists, and Strong wasn’t far behind with 10 points and six rebounds. Star guard Azzi Fudd, who has averaged 19 points over UConn’s last five games, didn’t take a single shot until sinking a jumper to beat the halftime buzzer.
The Huskies started the second half outscoring Butler 6-2, but the Bulldogs suddenly got hot from 3-point range. They shot 4-for-5 over the first five minutes of the quarter after entering halftime hitting just 3-for-13, and Butler finished with more third-quarter points than it had in the entire first half. But despite the offensive surge, UConn managed to keep pace in large part thanks to Fudd finding her shot. The redshirt junior went 4-for-5 in the third quarter to join Strong and Bueckers in double digits, and the Huskies were only outscored 25-22 in the third after Zeinstra hit a 3-pointer for the Bulldogs at the buzzer.
Butler began the fourth quarter with another make from beyond the arc, and the team finished the second half shooting 54.5% on 3-pointers. UConn was able to maintain its usual efficiency on outside shots hitting 45.5%, and the Huskies also showed off impressive consistency inside the arc shooting 57.8% from the field. They put up 31 points off of 22 Butler turnovers, and they also outscored the Bulldogs 32-14 in the paint.
Bueckers dished her 10th assist of the game midway through the fourth quarter to sophomore KK Arnold, who hit her first 3-pointer since Feb. 6. Indiana native Ashlynn Shade also exploded in the final quarter with 10 points shooting 3-for-4 from 3-point range to lead the Huskies on a 19-0 run over the last seven minutes of the game. Shade finished with 14 points plus three rebounds, two assists and a steal in front of her hometown crowd in Indianapolis.
