SPOKANE, Wash. — Paige Bueckers had the ball at the wing, dribbled to her right off a ball screen and connected on a mid-range jump shot.
She was officially cooking.
The UConn women’s basketball star scored a career-high 40 points as the No. 2 Huskies (34-3) knocked off No. 3 Oklahoma 82-59 in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 on Saturday at Spokane Arena. It also set a new UConn single-game NCAA tournament scoring record previously held by Kerry Bascom since 1991.
That bucket in the fourth quarter gave Bueckers 30 points and UConn’s first 20-point lead of the game. It was part of a run of 19 straight points scored by Bueckers.
“Paige was spectacular,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. ‘That was as good of a game as I’ve seen her play the whole time that she’s been here, and at the most important time. When you’re a senior and you’ve been around as long as she has, this is what you’re here to do. It’s why you came here.”
The Huskies, who will play either No. 1 Southern Cal or No. 5 Kansas State in the Elite Eight on Monday, trailed Oklahoma (27-8) by four points at halftime. Bueckers scored 29 points in the second half and shot 12-for-16 from the floor.
It came one game after Bueckers scored 34 points in her final game at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion to tie a career high.
‘We see this every day in practice,’ Auriemma said. ‘Every day at practice there’s long stretches of exactly what you saw today. Little by little it’s dawned on her, I think, that there is no next year. There is no, I can get this any time I want. You’re going to have to get it now or it won’t be available anymore. So, what she does is not a surprise to anybody on our team.”