Paige Bueckers, UConn blow by ice-cold Gophers
Paige Bueckers' homecoming nothing short of sensational as she led eighth-ranked Connecticut to a 62-44 win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers inside Williams Arena in Minneapolis.
Bueckers, a likely top three pick in next year's WNBA Draft, starred at Hopkins High School in the Twin Cities where she was the No. 1 recruit in the country and the national Gatorade Player of the Year in 2020.
Minnesota kept it close in the first half, trailing just 26-23 to a UConn team that on Thursday blasted 20th-ranked Maryland 80-48. But the Huskies turned on the jets in the third quarter, outscoring the Gophers 21-6 to take an 18-point lead into the fourth quarter and they never let Minnesota get close.
Bueckers finished with 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting with eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks.
Minnesota shot 9-of-38 in the first half compared to 11-of-25 for Connecticut, a large disparity in shot attempts thanks to the Gophers' 11 offensive rebounds. And when the offensive rebounds stopped coming and the shots evened up, the Huskies pulled away.
The Gophers shot 17-of-65 (26.2%) overall and 6-of-34 (17.6%) from 3.
Mara Braun, averaging 21.0 points per game in Minnesota's 3-0 start to the season, had her worst shooting performance in a long time, hitting 4-of-21 shots including 2-of-11 from 3-point range. She finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.