WBB: Huskies Get Offense Back On Track At Butler
INDIANAPOLIS- The Connecticut Huskies ensured fairly quickly that there would be no upset at the site of “Hoosiers”, the most famous underdog basketball movie, on Wednesday night.
Facing off against the downtrodden Butler Bulldogs, UConn (8-3, 3-0 Big East) put up the first nine points of their latest conference game and never looked back, leading wire-to-wire at Hinkle Fieldhouse en route to a 92-47 victory, clinching the win with their largest lead of the night. Three of the five Husky starters reached double figures, paced by 19 points each from Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams. Nelson-Ododa sank 8-of-10 from the field while the latter earned seven rebounds and steals each. Caroline Ducharme contributed 18 more points to the blowout (reaching at least 10 for the fourth straight game) while Evina Westbrook and Aaliyah Edwards respectively had 13 and 12 off the bench.
UConn put away any thoughts of a trap game or looking ahead early on, needing less than six minutes of game time to take a permanent double-digit lead. They took full advantage of a Butler team (1-12, 0-4 Big East) that was taking the floor in a game setting for the first time since December 29th thanks to issues with the ongoing health crisis, setting some season-best marks in the process.
Wednesday’s 92-point output was UConn’s best of the season and the first time they broke 80 since November 20th against Minnesota in the season-opening Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. A sterling defensive effort forced 27 Butler turnovers which yielded 43 points on the other end. UConn entered the game averaging just over 68 points per game, which would be their lowest tally since 1993.
The one-sided nature of the contest afforded the Huskies to showcase some of their younger talents and work off some rust. Sophomore Nika Muhl, appearing in her second contest back from a foot injury, partook in a season-best 17 minutes and had a team-best five assists. That mark was tied by Nelson-Ododa and freshman Amari DeBerry, who matched Muhl with an infantile career-best 17 minutes. Sophomore Piath Gabriel earned her first points since last March upon her entry in the fourth quarter, accumulating her first minutes since the aforementioned win over Minnesota.
With their win at Hinkle, UConn improved to 3-0 all-time against the Bulldogs, who are scheduled to visit Storrs on February 4th. Celena Taborn led the Bulldogs with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting, keeping pace with her nation-best 74.6 conversion rate from the field.
Connecticut returns to action on Saturday afternoon in Hartford, when they welcome Xavier to XL Center (12 p.m. ET, SNY). The Musketeers (6-8, 1-4 Big East) are coming off a 54-49 loss to Providence on Tuesday and dropped each of last year’s meetings with the Huskies.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
