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SPOKANE, Wash. — The last time the UConn women’s basketball team faced USC was just three months ago for a regular-season matchup in Hartford, and the heartbreaking 72-70 loss was a low point for the team during its grueling non-conference schedule.
Star guard Azzi Fudd was still recovering from a knee sprain she sustained against Louisville on Dec. 7 and played just eight minutes without scoring a point in the game. Paige Bueckers scored 22 points but had one of her least-efficient outings of the season, shooting 40.9% from the field, 2-for-8 from 3-point range and just 2-for-4 at the free throw line. Sarah Strong was the best player on the floor for UConn most of the game, but she came up short on a pair of free throws that could have tied the game in the final seconds.
Now, nearly 2,700 miles from the site of their most recent meeting, the No. 2 seed Huskies and the No. 1 seed Trojans will face off again in the Elite Eight on Monday (9 p.m., ESPN) in wildly different situations than they were in December with a berth to the Final Four on the line.
“Losing to them did really hurt that first time and not being able to play and help (the team) also really hurt,” Fudd said. “I just wasn’t ready, and that’s OK, but yeah, I feel like a completely different player and definitely (have) a completely different mindset as well … I’m just in a completely different place than I was then, so I’m excited to play.”
The headline for USC is the absence of sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear in the Trojans’ second-round win over Mississippi State. Watkins was at the heart of everything USC did this season, averaging 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.2 steals and 1.8 blocks to earn her second consecutive first-team All-American honors in 2025. She led the Trojans with 25 points plus five assists and six rebounds in their win over UConn.
UConn’s Geno Auriemma, Paige Bueckers lend support from experience to a suffering superstar
USC enters the Elite Eight rematch after escaping a Sweet 16 nail-biter against No. 5 seed Kansas State with a 67-61 win, but the Trojans got promising contributions in that victory from freshman standouts Kennedy Smith and Avery Howell. The pair combined for 37 points, and Howell played more than 35 minutes for the first time in her rookie campaign.
The Trojans also still have a star on the floor in senior transfer Kiki Iriafen, who put up a double-double against UConn in December. Iriafen struggled in the Sweet 16 with just seven points and eight rebounds, but the undersized Huskies will have their hands full with another 6-foot-4 forward after battling with Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers on Saturday.
“I think the pieces that they added, their young players, certainly changed the makeup of the team, and that was really evident yesterday, obviously,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “At this time of the year, as you saw last night, someone has to step up and do all the heavy lifting, and that normally would be somebody like JuJu. But if you have enough good people around her, which they do, they will get a chance to stand out even more than they would have ordinarily, so that could compensate for it. So they’re a different team in a positive way and they’re a different team in a negative way because of what happened.”
The Huskies have a challenge when it comes to scouting USC, because the game against Mississippi State was the first time since Watkins arrived on campus in 2023 where she played less than 25 minutes. But sophomore guard Ashlynn Shade said the team isn’t worried about the lack of film to work with: If the Huskies play their game, they know they’re more than capable of handling anything the Trojans throw at them.
‘Having her in the game makes me feel better’: Geno Auriemma trusts Ashlynn Shade when things get tough
“I think you definitely look back to that December game to kind of fuel the fire now that we’ve got another opportunity to play them on a big stage,” Shade said. “Our coaches are amazing at film and putting together a scouting report, and they’re still going to run the same the offense. They just don’t have their main player getting the shots, so they facilitate those shots to someone else … It’s just focusing on what we can control as a team, and I think when we’re most successful is when we’re playing our best defense and our offense is flowing, so we just have to focus on that.”
UConn comes into the Elite Eight riding the high of Bueckers’s spectacular 40-point performance that carried the team to an 82-59 win over Oklahoma in the Sweet 16. The Huskies have dominated in every matchup so far during the tournament, winning their first three games by an average margin of 42 points, and Bueckers has set career highs in back-to-back games averaging 28.3 on 61.4% shooting since the start of March Madness.
“You try not to think about the stakes or the pressure or getting to the Final Four, but obviously that’s there, so you try not to think about it and just go out and play every single game the same way: Like it’s your last, like it’s the most important 40 minutes of your life,” Bueckers said. “As a team, we just want the season to keep going as long as possible, so leaving nothing up to chance, giving it our all for that 40 minutes to play for another 40 is our team mindset.”
Site: Spokane Arena; Spokane, Wash.
Time/date: 9 p.m., Monday
Series record: UConn leads 4-0
Last meeting: 72-70 UConn, Dec. 21 in Hartford
TV: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: UConn Sports Network on Fox Sports 97.9
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Star guard Azzi Fudd was still recovering from a knee sprain she sustained against Louisville on Dec. 7 and played just eight minutes without scoring a point in the game. Paige Bueckers scored 22 points but had one of her least-efficient outings of the season, shooting 40.9% from the field, 2-for-8 from 3-point range and just 2-for-4 at the free throw line. Sarah Strong was the best player on the floor for UConn most of the game, but she came up short on a pair of free throws that could have tied the game in the final seconds.
Now, nearly 2,700 miles from the site of their most recent meeting, the No. 2 seed Huskies and the No. 1 seed Trojans will face off again in the Elite Eight on Monday (9 p.m., ESPN) in wildly different situations than they were in December with a berth to the Final Four on the line.
“Losing to them did really hurt that first time and not being able to play and help (the team) also really hurt,” Fudd said. “I just wasn’t ready, and that’s OK, but yeah, I feel like a completely different player and definitely (have) a completely different mindset as well … I’m just in a completely different place than I was then, so I’m excited to play.”
The headline for USC is the absence of sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear in the Trojans’ second-round win over Mississippi State. Watkins was at the heart of everything USC did this season, averaging 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.2 steals and 1.8 blocks to earn her second consecutive first-team All-American honors in 2025. She led the Trojans with 25 points plus five assists and six rebounds in their win over UConn.
UConn’s Geno Auriemma, Paige Bueckers lend support from experience to a suffering superstar
USC enters the Elite Eight rematch after escaping a Sweet 16 nail-biter against No. 5 seed Kansas State with a 67-61 win, but the Trojans got promising contributions in that victory from freshman standouts Kennedy Smith and Avery Howell. The pair combined for 37 points, and Howell played more than 35 minutes for the first time in her rookie campaign.
The Trojans also still have a star on the floor in senior transfer Kiki Iriafen, who put up a double-double against UConn in December. Iriafen struggled in the Sweet 16 with just seven points and eight rebounds, but the undersized Huskies will have their hands full with another 6-foot-4 forward after battling with Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers on Saturday.
“I think the pieces that they added, their young players, certainly changed the makeup of the team, and that was really evident yesterday, obviously,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “At this time of the year, as you saw last night, someone has to step up and do all the heavy lifting, and that normally would be somebody like JuJu. But if you have enough good people around her, which they do, they will get a chance to stand out even more than they would have ordinarily, so that could compensate for it. So they’re a different team in a positive way and they’re a different team in a negative way because of what happened.”
The Huskies have a challenge when it comes to scouting USC, because the game against Mississippi State was the first time since Watkins arrived on campus in 2023 where she played less than 25 minutes. But sophomore guard Ashlynn Shade said the team isn’t worried about the lack of film to work with: If the Huskies play their game, they know they’re more than capable of handling anything the Trojans throw at them.
‘Having her in the game makes me feel better’: Geno Auriemma trusts Ashlynn Shade when things get tough
“I think you definitely look back to that December game to kind of fuel the fire now that we’ve got another opportunity to play them on a big stage,” Shade said. “Our coaches are amazing at film and putting together a scouting report, and they’re still going to run the same the offense. They just don’t have their main player getting the shots, so they facilitate those shots to someone else … It’s just focusing on what we can control as a team, and I think when we’re most successful is when we’re playing our best defense and our offense is flowing, so we just have to focus on that.”
UConn comes into the Elite Eight riding the high of Bueckers’s spectacular 40-point performance that carried the team to an 82-59 win over Oklahoma in the Sweet 16. The Huskies have dominated in every matchup so far during the tournament, winning their first three games by an average margin of 42 points, and Bueckers has set career highs in back-to-back games averaging 28.3 on 61.4% shooting since the start of March Madness.
“You try not to think about the stakes or the pressure or getting to the Final Four, but obviously that’s there, so you try not to think about it and just go out and play every single game the same way: Like it’s your last, like it’s the most important 40 minutes of your life,” Bueckers said. “As a team, we just want the season to keep going as long as possible, so leaving nothing up to chance, giving it our all for that 40 minutes to play for another 40 is our team mindset.”
How to watch UConn women’s basketball vs USC in Elite Eight
Site: Spokane Arena; Spokane, Wash.
Time/date: 9 p.m., Monday
Series record: UConn leads 4-0
Last meeting: 72-70 UConn, Dec. 21 in Hartford
TV: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: UConn Sports Network on Fox Sports 97.9
Continue reading...
