Spokane regional: Paige Bueckers goes for career-high 40 points as UConn beats Oklahoma 82-59

Thinking of stealing a win from the UConn women?

Then don’t get your pockets picked.

That’s what happened to the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday afternoon, when they committed 23 turnovers and eventually an 82-59 Sweet 16 blowout at the hands of Paige Bueckers and the Huskies at the Arena.

“Buckets” lived up to her nickname, scoring a career-high 40 points to lead the Huskies into the Elite Eight on Monday night. But it was a gritty defensive play from Bueckers early in the second half that turned around the game.

Loose balls have been a problem all year for Oklahoma, which came into the contest averaging 18.7 turnovers. Only 33 Division 1 teams out of 353 are worse, and that caught up with the Sooners in the second half.

UConn (34-3) held a 44-40 lead early in the third quarter when Bueckers muscled the ball cleanly away from OU’s Zaya Van and heaved it toward teammate Azzi Fudd for an easy layup.

Thirty seconds later, Van’s missed layup led to another Bueckers bucket and an emphatic double fist-pump by the UConn star.

It also forced a timeout from OU coach Jennie Baranczyk, whose team led 36-32 at halftime but suddenly trailed by eight.

“That’s as good a game as I’ve seen her play as long as she’s been here,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said of his star, whose 40 points are the most by a UConn player in the NCAA Tournament.

The timeout didn’t help. Bueckers’ steal highlighted a 16-2 run over 4½ minutes.

By the end of the quarter, UConn led 59-46.

Three minutes into the fourth quarter, the lead was up to 20 as Bueckers shot 12 for 16 from the field in the second half.

“We did a really good job of taking care of the ball,” said Auriemma, whose team leads the nation with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.98.

“Our defense has been forcing a lot of turnovers, but we knew we had to be active,” Auriemma said.

Scanning the stat sheet – 23 turnovers by OU, 10 by UConn – Auriemma noted, “That’s an extra 13 shots that we’re going to get that they’re not going to get.”

Oklahoma (27-8) opened the game on an 8-0 run, but UConn scored nine straight and finished the quarter ahead 17-12.

Oklahoma turned the game around in a hurry in the second quarter.

By halftime, the Sooners had committed 13 turnovers, hit just 5 of 17 shots from long range and were losing 23-21 on the boards.

Yet they led 36-32, thanks to a defense that held UConn to 36% from the field and Bueckers scoreless in the second quarter on three shots.

Meanwhile, Louisville transfer Payton Verhulst had 13 first-half points for the Sooners, three of them on a 30-footer midway through the period.

The Huskies were unfazed.

“We knew we were getting good shots in the first half, the shots just weren’t dropping,” Bueckers said.

Auriemma was just as pragmatic.

“We played defense well enough that they had to work really hard for the 36 they had in the first half,” Auriemma said.

Oklahoma came into the game off one of the most prodigious rebounding efforts in NCAA history. The Sooners pulled down an NCAA Tournament-record 72 boards in a first-round win over Florida Gulf Coast, then grabbed 64 against Iowa.

Going into the game, their plus-13 average on the boards was tops in the nation, but they lost that battle 43-41

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