Guru’s WBB Report: No. 3 UConn Rides 4th Quarter Outburst to Win at No. 25 Tennessee While Louisville Tops Syracuse Winning First Game as a No. 1

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

No. 3 Connecticut narrowly wasted a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter but made good on its first return to No. 25 Tennessee in 15 seasons when freshman Paige Bueckers hit a clutch three-pointer with 28 seconds left in regulation Thursday night to enable the unbeaten Huskies to finish it with a 67-61 victory over the Lady Vols (9-3) in Thompson-Boling Arena Arena in Knoxville.

Meanwhile, in its first-ever game as the No. 1 women’s team in the nation, unbeaten Louisville topped No. 23 Syracuse 67-54 at home in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at home in the Cardinals’ KFC Yum Center, while over in the Big Ten, No. 17 Ohio State edged No. 11 Michigan 81-77 at home in the Buckeyes’ Value City Arena in Columbus despite the Wolverines’ Naz Hillmon setting a record for both the combined men’s and women’s programs scoring 50 points.

Highlights from other ranked teams that played saw sophomore Aliyah Boston produce a triple double, the first-ever in a Southeastern Conference women’s game, for No. 4 South Carolina in the Gamecocks’ 62-50 win over No. 22 Georgia as she scored 16 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, and collected 10 blocked shots at home in Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.

In another SEC game on the road, No. 12 Kentucky escaped host Auburn 76-71 in Alabama, while No. 18 DePaul won at Butler 80-66 in a Big East game in Hinkle Arena in Indianapolis, and No. 21 Northwestern at home in a Big Ten game in Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill., beat Illinois 73-54.

Three other games involving ranked teams were postponed, in the Big Ten, the local longtime rivalry saw a postponement of host Rutgers and Penn State because of the home team’s positive tests of COVID-19, while Iowa was allowed to call off its trip to No. 12 Maryland at the Xfinity Center in College Park because of its proximity to events involving the presidential inauguration of  Joseph R. Biden  in the nearby nation’s capital on Wednesday. Finally COVID-19 testing resulted in the West Coast Conference postponement of host No. 20 Gonzaga playing visiting San Diego  in the West  Coast Conference.

UConn Beats Tennessee: Once touted as the top women’s national rivalry in the country,  the 24th meeting of the visiting Huskies (8-0) and Lady Vols was still pretty relevant and a huge upset seemed potential to happen with UConn missing shots from the field and shooting an overall mediocre 10-for-21 from the line.

Both teams were going through an inordinate season with stops and starts caused by coronavirus protocols on either Tier-1 individuals on their teams or on opponents causing readjustments to occur.

Tennessee had done a good job keeping Bueckers off the scoreboard but the Lady Vols were ruined by one of their former own, Evina Westbrook, the only player to ever transfer out of Knoxville up to the power located in New England.

With the score tied 52-52 with 2:46 left in regulation, the native of Baltimore nailed one from deep, assisted by Bueckers,  and after UConn got a stop,Westbrook nailed another trey for a 6-0 run. It then grew to nine on Olivia Nelson-Odada’s three-point play.

Meanwhile, Bueckers had to briefly leave the game when she rolled her ankle, and though while not scoring, she was contributing in many other ways.

Tamari Key’s layup with just under a minute left for Tennessee completed getting the Lady Vols back into it and they trailed by two.

But then Bueckers, who had left the game with a rolled ankle,  returned  and with 28 seconds left she launched a three that hit the mark and extended the UConn lead by five, which held up to the end of the game.

“I keep reiterating this all the time,” said UConn Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma. “If Paige ever becomes a little more selfish, we’ll be a much better team. I’m glad she didn’t give up that open three that she had. That was pretty big.”

“When that one came off her hand, we all knew it was going in,” said Westbrook. “She knew it, the bench knew it. I felt like the crowd knew it.”

With downsized protocols in place, the crowd was limited to 3,553.

“There were times when we had to come down here, I knew we were going to face a pretty good team,” said Auriemma recalling the days when Tennessee was coached by Summitt, who cancelled the rivalry after the 2007 season, upset with perceived wrongdoing on UConn’s successful recruiting of all-time great Maya Moore, “But I also knew I was bringing a pretty good team with me.

“It was going to be like a heavyweight fight and the arena likely was going to have some 24,000 people. Walking in to shoot-a-round and the game, it just wasn’t the same.”

Auriemma recently passed Summitt to move on the all-time coaching women’s division one victory list into second past her once number one position of 1,098 victories to what is now 1,100. Last month Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer claimed the top spot and is at 1,105, certainly in striking distance for Auriemma and her to trade spots, back and forth, assuming both will remain in the profession several years longer.

“There were some years since we couldn’t play even if we wanted to,” he said, but also offered he’d be willing to continue the current home-and-home, which expired Thursday as a two-year deal.

Christyn Williams, who will get her own homecoming, resident-wise, next week with a late scheduled addition to visit No. 14 Arkansas on Thursday, scored 20 for UConn, while Westbrook was 5-for-8 from the field, scored 15, and Aubrey Griffin, who’s second half play a year ago carried the Huskies to a win, scored 10.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa  grabbed 11 rebounds, while Bueckers, who was 3-14-from the field, scored nine.

Tennessee’s Rae Burrell scored 18 and had 8 rebounds, while Rennia Davis scored 11 and grabbed nine rebounds, Marta Suarez and Key each scored 10, and Key grabbed nine rebounds.

Summitt retired after 2012, fighting Alzheimer’s Disease that ultimately claimed her several years later. Her longtime associate head coach and former player Holly Warlick succeded her until a year ago when former Vols star Kellie Harper was hired.

She and Auriemma each donated $10,000 to benefit the Pat Summitt Foundation, which is involved in the fight against the disease, and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, which is located in Knoxville.

“That’s probably going to be one of the best environments of the year for a regular season game,” Harper said. “I know it’s a tough year to be out so I’m really appreciative of them.

“Obviously, we’re really disappointed,” she continued. “We felt like we had a pretty good game plan going into the game.

“Our players felt confident and good about it, and we were able to execute it for the majority of the night. Obviously, in the fourth quarter, we just could not find a bucket. They changed their defense a few times and threw our pace off a little bit. We got a little tight but had some open looks and just couldn’t knock them down,” Harper added.

“Also in that fourth quarter, we gave up more offensive boards than we needed to. We gave them some extra possessions. Obviously, Connecticut is a really good basketball team. They’re so solid. They pass the ball well.”

Counting the two recent games in what was billed as the Hall of Fame Revival Series, the Huskies are 15-9 overall, and 5-3 in Knoxville. That series also includes UConn as  a perfect 4-0 in the NCAA championship game.

Auriemma said a key was just being able to hang around, being down just one at the half.

“I can’t think of one thing we did well those first three quarters, we just hung around. Then in the fourth quarter, we got some big stops.”

“They’re just so hard to play against, man,” he explained. “They’re just so big. They’re so big, so big.

“Those first three quarters, it would have been really easy for us to just let it get away and leave here with an ‘L’. “But games like this are somewhat rewarding.”

In terms of Westbrook’s return to Knoxville, Auriemma revealed, “I pulled her aside today at shootaround, and I tried to point out the difference between playing with a lot of emotion, and not being emotional and letting your emotions getting in the way.

“It was not easy for her coming down here,” Auriemma said. “But I thought she was unbelievably good. She made some really clutch shots in really big moments in the game,  And I thought there was another one that went in. 

“It couldn’t have been easy coming back here, as it never is when someone goes back to where they were playing before, but I couldn’t have asked her to play any better, for sure.”

Connecticut returns to Big East competition Saturday hosting Georgetown at 2 p.m. in Gampel Pavilion on the Storrs campus, while Tennessee goes back into the SEC, playing No. 12 Kentucky, Sunday, in Knoxville.

Louisville Fights First-Timers Hex:  In the 45-year history of the AP women’s poll, there are times that when teams get ranked for their first appearance, like Washington State did a week ago, or get to No. 1, they at times immediately tend to getting upset, such as that same Washington State team, which went on to lose two games in PAC-12 competition in overtime at Southern Cal, and then-No. 9 UCLA.

Not so Louisville (13-0, 6-0 ACC). The Cardinals, who jumped a spot from second on Monday following Stanford’s upset loss at Colorado in Boulder, took an ACC game, beating No. 23 Syracuse 67-54 at home in the KFC Yum Center.

Coach Jeff Walz said the squad maintained the demeanor all week it had sported prior to its ascension.

“We didn’t approach it like we had a big head on our shoulders, now we have arrived,” he said late Thursday night after the 9 p.m. game concluded.

The dynamic backcourt duo of Dana Evans and freshman Hailey Van Lith combined for 39 points, 21 from Evans, and 6-for-11 shooting from down deep for all Van Lith’s 18 points.

Syracuse (7-2, 4-2 ACC), which recently came off a two=week pause, got 16 points and 11 rebounds from Emily Engstier, while Kamilla Cardoso had 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Tiana Mangakahia focused on distributions, scoring just four against Syracuse, but tossing 11 assists.

And that’s the report.