The Ducks kindly spotted UConn a 10-0 lead before going on a 39-14 run to lead by 15 at half. It was never really close after that as Oregon led by as many as 24 in the 2nd half.
Louisville 69, UConn 64: A hot start evolved into a back-and-forth game that ended with another UConn loss. UConn led at the end of every quarter but the most important one, losing their 3rd game of the season and 2nd in 3 games.
Pregame: UConn was still without Bueckers and 3 potentially important subs: Fudd, Griffin, and Muhl. For the 2nd time this season UConn faced a higher-ranked team (and both times the 4th quarter was their Achilles' heel). Played at the Mohegan Sun, this was pretty close to a home game for the Huskies, so it wouldn't have been unreasonable to anticipate a win.
Summary: Many facets of this game were actually pretty even. Turnovers, steals, assists, and blocks were particularly close. UConn had a slight advantage in rebounding, and UConn (24-49 for 49%) decisively outshot Louisville (14-36 for 39%) on 2s. This game was lost at the lines, both the 3-pt line and the FT line. UConn struggled to get anything going beyond the arc, shooting 3-15 (20%) from there while Louisville was scorching hot out there shooting 8-15 (53%). And while UConn shot a decent 70% on FTs, they only got there 10 times. Louisville went 17-20 there for 85%.
Basically UConn outscored Louisville by 20 points on 2s but got outscored by them by 15 on 3s and 10 on FTs. (Of course, Louisville's FT advantage was partly due to UConn being forced to foul in the closing minutes.)
Ebbs and Flows: UConn raced out to a 12-2 lead early, and still led by 16-9 at the end of the 1st quarter. They held that lead much of the 2nd quarter, but as the quarter neared its end Louisville rallied and UConn led by a much smaller 28-25 at the half.
By around the halfway point of the 3rd quarter Louisville had completely changed the script, leading by 38-32. But then it was UConn's turn to dominate again as they erased that lead and took a 45-42 lead into the 4th. In the 4th, Louisville quickly eliminated the UConn lead, then the teams went cold for about 4 minutes. Louisville broke out of the funk first, and by the time UConn finally started scoring again all they were able to do is basically trade baskets for the rest of the game.
What Went Right? Ducharme had her best game as a collegian in this one. After a somewhat slow start, she really got comfortable in the 2nd half. She finished with a game-high 24 points, shooting 7-11 on 2s and 3-9 on 3s. The 3-pt shooting seemed especially impressive s
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