Paige Bueckers showed no signs of rust after missing two games with a sprained left knee.
“I feel good,” Bueckers said after the No. 1 win. 6 Conn’s 71-45 at St. John’s on Wednesday night. “I’m glad to be back there. Obviously the first game is back to anything you just want to get your feet wet. Get the feel of playing basketball again, the nature of it, the speed of it but feel good.”
Bueckers scored 12 points in 23 minutes. He was 1-of-4 in the first half when UConn held a 15-point lead and struggled to find shots for the All-American guard in an uneven opening 20 minutes.
“Anytime you take a break, you’re always going to be surprised when you go in there and the way the game started, it looked like he just picked up where he left off,” Huskies coach Geno Auriemma said. said. “Then you start to see him slip and he doesn’t have the ability to get his foot on the gas like he used to. So he spent half of the first half just hanging around and we couldn’t get him enough shots.”
After UConn briefly let the lead go to 11 early in the third quarter, Bueckers hit three mid-range jumpers in a span of three and a half minutes to push the lead to 48-27 and ensure he was on the bench. fourth viewing bench.
“We changed a few things and all of a sudden there was an explosion, an explosion, an explosion,” Auriemma said. “So I don’t doubt what Paige can do to have an impact on the game because I’ve seen it many times but I also know that she’s not a robot that you just put her in, you push a button and everything happens automatically.”
Bueckers bounced back from wins over Xavier and Georgetown and heads into Sunday’s game against Seton Hall just shy of becoming UConn’s 12th 2,000-point scorer. Bueckers is on the cusp of a 101-game hitting streak and will pass Maya Moore as the fastest to reach 2,000 points for the Huskies.
Bueckers was injured in the Huskies’ 83-52 win over Villanova on Jan. 5 after Wildcats freshman guard Jasmine Bascoe fell on her left leg as she dove for a loose ball. Bueckers limped off the field with 1:17 left in the third quarter and did not return.
Bueckers was the national player of the year as a freshman but injuries limited him to just 17 games over the next two seasons. He started 54 games over the past two seasons before his brief absence.
It is reported by the Associated Press.
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