By the end of the first quarter against DePaul on Wednesday night, UConn women’s basketball star Azzi Fudd was outscoring the home team single-handedly.
After she spent most of January in a scoring slump, the redshirt senior sharpshooter went 5-for-5 from the field in the first quarter at Wintrust Arena in Chicago to power the Huskies to an early 21-point lead. She dropped 13 points and added three steals on the defensive end, helping hold DePaul to just 10.
Fudd went on to finish with 25 points shooting, 10-for-17 with four made 3-pointers, leading No. 1 UConn to an 86-40 rout of the Blue Demons. It was Fudd’s first time scoring 25-plus in back-to-back games this season after she put up 27 points in a win over No. 19 Tennessee on Sunday. She also hit as many shots from beyond the arc in the last two matchups as she did in the previous five combined.
All-American sophomore Sarah Strong was quietly dominant once again, stuffing the stat sheet with 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals in just 20 minutes on the court. She and Fudd hit a combined 61.5% from the field and accounted for more than half of UConn’s scoring before sitting out the fourth quarter.
The Huskies improved to 24-0 overall and 13-0 in the Big East with the win, and it was their 60th consecutive victory over a conference opponent. The team also extended its streak of wins by 25-plus to 19 games, the longest streak in at least the last 25 years.
Fudd’s efficiency was contagious for the Huskies in the first quarter. After Strong missed a layup on the first attempt of the game, UConn sank 10 consecutive shots and finished the quarter on a 15-2 run. Ashlynn Shade connected for the team’s first made 3-pointer, and Fudd knocked down a pair on back-to-back possessions to improve the Huskies to a perfect 3-for-3 from deep.
But UConn’s offense went cold in the second, outscoring the Blue Demons just 13-10. Fudd recorded her first miss of the game early in the quarter, and the Huskies came up short on three straight possessions before center Jana El Alfy hit a layup for the team’s first points. They shot a combined 1-for-5 on 3-pointers, and Strong was the only player to make multiple field goals in the second.
The Huskies’ smothering defense kept DePaul from making a dent in their comfortable lead, holding the Blue Demons to just 28.6% from the field and forcing 14 turnovers in the first half. DePaul went scoreless for more than five minutes during the second quarter while UConn was struggling itself to put points on the board, and the Blue Demons struggled to find comfortable shots taking 14 3-pointers and connecting just twice.
But DePaul managed to limit the Huskies’ scoring opportunities in transition after the first quarter, holding them to just six points off turnovers and three on fastbreaks. UConn also gave up four uncharacteristic turnovers in the second.
Fudd and Strong continued to propel UConn out of halftime, accounting for all of the Huskies’ points on an early 12-2 run. Fudd scored 10 of the team’s 20 points in the third, draining another pair of 3-pointers
Junior KK Arnold kicked off the fourth quarter with three straight layups in transition, and the starting point guard finished with 12 points plus five assists in the victory. Despite its slumps, the Huskies’ offensive ball movement was as good as it’s been all year with 30 assists on 37 made field goals. Sophomore point guard Kayleigh Heckel led the team with six assists on top of nine points and four rebounds.
UConn got contributions from every player who saw the court, finishing with 10 different scorers. The Huskies’ reserves held DePaul without points for the final three minutes of the fourth quarter, outscoring the Blue Demons 22-11.