No. 3 UConn knocks off St. John’s, 71-40, to advance to Big East Tournament semifinals

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Paige Bueckers had 20 points to lead No. 3 UConn to a 71-40 win over St. John’s in the quarterfinals of the Big East women’s basketball tournament on Saturday.

Sarah Strong had 10 points and 14 rebounds while Azzi Fudd finished with 11 points for UConn (29-3) as the Huskies won their 13th consecutive Big East tournament game and recorded their 34th win in a row in a conference tournament.

Ariana Vanderhoop and Kylie Lavelle each had 11 points and three 3-pointers. Lashae Dwyer had 10 points for the Red Storm (16-15)

UConn used a 22-0 run to take command of the game after the Red Storm scored the first two points of the game.

Lavelle had eight points in a span of 1:48 as the Red Storm cut into the UConn lead. However, Bueckers had four of her 10 first-half points in the final 49 seconds of the second quarter as the Huskies led 34-17 at halftime.

Takeaways

St. John’s: The Red Storm had four 3-pointers in the second half, one shy of the total in each of the two games against the Huskies in the regular season.

UConn: The Huskies advanced to the semifinals in their conference tournament for the 37th season in a row. The last time the Huskies failed to reach the semifinals was in 1988.

Key moment

UConn held St. John’s without a basket for nearly nine minutes, Ber’Nyah Mayo gave St. John’s the early lead but the Red Storm missed their next 12 shots as the Huskies scored the next 22 points. Fudd led the way with five points while Kaitlyn Chen, Bueckers and Jana El Alfy added four points each.

Key stat

UConn didn’t commit its first turnover until 7:59 remained in the third quarter. St. John’s came into the game ranking third in the Big East with an average of 8.97 steals per game. The Red Storm had just one steal in the first three quarters.