Paige Bueckers dominated the second half and finished with the best performance of her career.
Behind a historic performance from Paige Bueckers, UConn women’s basketball surged past the 3-seed Oklahoma Sooners 82-59 in Spokane to advance to the Elite Eight.
Bueckers exploded for 40 points — the most by a Husky in the NCAA Tournament and the first to hit that mark since Katie Lou Samuelson in the 2017 AAC Tournament. UConn trailed by four at the half, only for Bueckers to put up 29 points — out-scoring the Sooners by six — over the final 20 minutes. She did so on 16-27 shooting overall and a red-hot 6-8 day from three.
Elsewhere, Sarah Strong had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds while also adding five assists. Ashlynn Shade (12) and Azzi Fudd (10) also reached double-figures.
UConn’s defense shut down Raegan Beers, limiting her to 10 points on 3-11 shooting. It also forced 23 turnovers which turned into 18 points down the other way. The Huskies also struggled with giveaways in the first half, committing nine, but cleaned it up in the second half and only had one over the latter 20 minutes.
For the second straight game, UConn’s offense struggled out of the gate. The Huskies went 3:02 without scoring and missed their first four shots. Once Bueckers got them on the board with a 3-pointer, the points came quickly. In the span of 87 seconds, UConn turned an 8-0 deficit into a 9-8 lead and rode that wave into a 17-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
From there, Oklahoma came alive with a 10-0 run in the second period — led by eight straight points from Payton Verhulst — to re-take the lead. KK Arnold drove the rim for a layup to stop the bleeding, though that proved to be just one of five baskets that UConn made in the quarter.
The Huskies went into the half behind 36-32.
Out of the break, UConn took over and scored 23 of the first 27 points — thanks in part to a 16-0 run. After being held scoreless in the second quarter, Bueckers put up 10 in the third to help extend the Huskies’ lead to as many as 15. Shade also stepped up with some plays that didn’t show up in the stat sheet but proved crucial to UConn’s surge.
Through 30 minutes, the Huskies led by 13. Then Bueckers went nuclear. She scored their first 19 points of the fourth quarter, which was more than anyone on either team had in the entire game. In the end, UConn came out with a 23-point victory.
Next, the Huskies will take on the winner of USC and Kansas State in the Elite Eight on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.