STORRS — When Ashlynn Shade opened the third quarter against Creighton on Wednesday with a steal that she converted into a 3-pointer at the other end, it all but sealed the win for the UConn women’s basketball team.
After going back and forth early, all it took was a brief halftime adjustment for the Huskies to completely smother the Bluejays. Shade’s shot was the first of five made 3-pointers for UConn in the third after it converted only five in the entire first half. The Huskies’ defense then lived up to its reputation as one of the best in the country holding the Bluejays to 1-for-16 shooting in the quarter.
The Huskies outscored Creighton by 32 points in the second half to earn a 94-44 victory at Gampel Pavilion and improve to 26-0 this season. The win was UConn’s largest in the history of its series with the Bluejays, and it was also Creighton’s lowest-scoring performance in 14 meetings.
Sophomore guard Allie Ziebell led the Huskies with 20 points off the bench, connecting on five 3-pointers and shooting 7-for-10 from the field. Star guard Azzi Fudd added 19 points shooting 61.5% from the field and 3-for-4 from the perimeter, also adding four rebounds, four assists and two steals. All-American sophomore Sarah Strong added 16 points in just 19 minutes, while junior guard Ashlynn Shade and sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel had 13 apiece in the rout. Heckel led the Huskies with four steals, and Shade matched center Jana El Alfy with a team-high five rebounds.
UConn had dismal offensive start, kept alive only by a dominant showing from Strong. The Huskies started the game 1-for-6 from the field and briefly trailed Creighton, 3-2, before Strong took matters into her own hands, scoring eight straight points to put the team back in front. She accounted for 12 of UConn’s 19 points in the first playing just eight minutes, but she exited the game late in the quarter and appeared to vomit in a trash can near the Huskies’ bench. She didn’t return to the game until three minutes into the second quarter.
Creighton kept pace behind a 4-for-9 start from 3-point range, trailing by just five at the end of the first. The Bluejays broke through UConn’s press to find multiple wide-open looks from the perimeter, and they connected with far more consistency than they did the first time the teams met on Jan. 11 when Creighton shot 3-for-25 from deep.
But the Huskies eventually found their rhythm, ripping off a 9-0 run in the second quarter to break open their first double-digit lead of the game. Fudd kicked things off with a layup after picking the pocket of Creighton star Ava Zediker, and Heckel capped the run with a steal-and-score of her own. UConn kept the Bluejays scoreless for almost six minutes, forcing six turnovers during that stretch.
Heckel scored five straight points to end the second quarter, sending UConn into halftime ahead, 42-24. She knocked down her first 3-pointer since Jan. 19 against Notre Dame, then immediately got out in transition for a layup after point guard KK Arnold grabbed a steal. UConn had 17 points off turnovers in the half and limited Creighton to 31% shooting from the field, though the Bluejays were still hanging on thanks to six made 3-pointers.
But it was quickly over for Creighton after halftime once the Huskies began to heat up from deep. After the opening steal and 3-pointer, Shade added another in transition for her first two makes of the night. UConn ended the third on its largest run of the game, scoring 16 unanswered points that began with back-to-back 3-pointers from Fudd, and the redshirt senior finished with eight points in the third alone shooting 3-for-3. Ziebell accounted for six points on the run, finishing the third with a four-point play after getting fouled on a made three.
The Huskies continued to rain shots from the perimeter in the fourth. Ziebell connected for three of her five makes in the final frame, and Shade added one more of her own to improve the team to 14-for-26 on 3-pointers. UConn finished shooting 57.1% from the field as a team while holding Creighton to just 22.6%, and the team also put up 27 points off of 22 forced turnovers.