By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
STORRS, Conn. – Earlier this week, The New York Times ran a story with the headline, "Is the UConn Dynasty a Thing of the Past?"
And while the Baylor Bears went toe-to-toe with the most storied program in the history of women's basketball for the first 25 minutes of Monday's NCAA Tournament second-round matchup at Gampel Pavilion, the answer is still an emphatic no.
Led by sophomore guard Azzi Fudd, who scored 16 of her game-high 22 points in the third quarter, the second-seeded and sixth-ranked Huskies (31-5) pulled away down the stretch to hand the seventh-seeded Bears (20-13) a 77-58 loss before a packed house of 10,167 that was rocking from the opening tip.
UConn, which has already won 11 national championships, earned its 29th-consecutive Sweet 16 berth and is now two wins away from a mind-boggling 15th-straight Final Four. Do those numbers sound like the dynasty is over?
"I thought we went toe-to-toe with maybe the best coach that's ever been in women's college basketball," second-year Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said of Hall of Fame UConn coach Geno Auriemma. "I know that's debatable and I'm not trying to start anything here, but Geno is an unbelievable coach, and what he's done here in 30-plus years is insane."
Coming into the game as a decisive underdog, Baylor got out to a hot start, hitting 6-of-11 from outside the arc and taking a surprising 24-18 lead after the first quarter.
"We have great shooters on this team," said senior guard Jaden Owens, who was 4-of-6 from 3-point range, finishing with 14 points and four assists.
"I feel like everybody can shoot the 3, so I wouldn't say that's our game plan. Our game plan was to just get our paint touches and execute whatever play Coach Nicki wants us to run. If it's an open 3, we're going to take it. We don't want to live and die by the 3, but Ja'Mee (Asberry) was really on."
With UConn in the unfamiliar position of playing from behind, Auriemma said there were times during the game "where I thought we're really, really, really in big trouble because we were having so much trouble executing the defensive game plan that we wanted."
Even when the Huskies scored nine unanswered points to start the second quarter, going up 27-24 on back-to-back layups by Aaliyah Edwards, the Bears clawed back from a nine-point deficit to make it a two-point game late in the half on an Owens 3-pointer.
But after Sarah Andrews missed a pull-up jumper with four seconds left, point guard Nika Mühl took an outlet pass from Aubrey Griffin and nailed a buzzer-beating shot near half-court that gave UConn the momentum and a 40-35 lead going into the break.
The momentum seemed to shift back to Baylor when Edwards picked up her fourth foul less than three minutes into the second half. Owens hit a pull-up 3-pointer from the wing that tied it up at 46-46 with 5:15 left in the third period.
"I thought when Aaliyah Edwards picked up her fourth foul, that would be a momentum changer for us," Collen said. "Ironically, it was the opposite. Aubrey Griffin came in and to me was a difference maker for them. It just goes to show you that it's not always about who scores all the points, but the extra possessions she created, the energy she created in transition, the way she was flying around, she just changed the energy for the whole team."
The 6-1 Griffin only scored two points in the pivotal third quarter, but she grabbed four offensive boards and six of her game-high 12 rebounds in the period after subbing in for Edwards.
"At that point, I was thinking we could pull it out," said Asberry, who hit four 3-pointers and scored a team-high 15 points for the Bears. "But then 44 (Griffin) started getting big offensive rebounds, and I think that was really good for their team and really bad for ours. I think she was their spark in the third quarter when we needed a spark."
The Huskies also got a huge lift from Fudd, who hit two quick buckets in a span of 18 seconds that gave them the lead for good. She also hit two 3-pointers and capped off a 16-2 run with a driving layup that made it 62-48.
"Obviously, Azzi Fudd looked like the Azzi we were watching in November before she got hurt," Collen said of the 5-11 sophomore guard, a preseason All-Big East pick who averaged 24 points through the first six games before missing 22 of the next 24 games with knee injuries. "She was making her pull-up, getting all the way to the basket. She was obviously an All-American player today."
Trailing by 12 going into the fourth quarter, Baylor never got anything going in the final period, hitting just 3-of-16 from the floor and getting outscored, 15-8.
"I think we just got tired, and they didn't," Asberry said. "They are an experienced team and obviously they have a lot of championships and a lot of Final Four runs. I think that's where their experience came through."
Freshman Bella Fontleroy added 12 points and five rebounds for the Bears, hitting 2-of-3 from outside the arc. Andrews, who has had limited practice time over the last two weeks because of plantar fasciitis, made just two of 13 shots from the field and finished with five points and four assists.
"There were just some missed assignments from us that we went over, we weren't as locked in as we needed to be, and they were hitting shots," said senior forward Caitlin Bickle, who had five points and a team-high eight rebounds to go with four assists and a steal in 35 minutes. "They're a great team. And when they got open shots, they were making them."
Collen said the last game of the season "is about the kids that will never be in that locker room again."
"I'm just super-lucky to have coached Ja'Mee and Caitlin Bickle," she said. "Caitlin, she's so special. She is our safety, our quarterback, she runs our team. She can run every position on the floor, she's the best communicator on our team. Stubborn as heck. Nobody I've ever coached plays more for the name on the front of her jersey than Caitlin Bickle. Nobody."
UConn, which was 14-2 at home this season, advances to face third-seeded Ohio State (27-7) in the region semifinals in Seattle, Wash. OSU earned a Sweet 16 berth with a 71-69 win over sixth-seeded North Carolina in a second-round game in Columbus, Ohio.