{"id":40481,"date":"2025-11-10T03:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T03:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/40481\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T03:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T03:57:09","slug":"azzi-fudd-sarah-strong-lead-uconn-women-past-florida-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/40481\/","title":{"rendered":"Azzi Fudd, Sarah Strong lead UConn women past Florida State"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORRS \u2014 On the day the UConn women\u2019s basketball<\/a> team hung its 2025 NCAA Championship banner in the rafters at Gampel Pavilion, redshirt senior Azzi Fudd<\/a> looked exactly like the version of herself that won the Final Four\u2019s Most Outstanding Player award in Tampa, Florida seven months ago.<\/p>\n

Fudd powered the No. 1 Huskies to a 99-67 rout of Florida State<\/a> in their home opener Sunday, dropping 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting plus five assists, three rebounds and two steals. The star guard put up 20 points in the first half alone, capping her spectacular start with a mid-range jump shot at the buzzer that sent UConn into halftime leading by 24.<\/p>\n

Fellow superstar Sarah Strong<\/a> also had a dominant all-around performance. She finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, an identical stat line to the one she posted in the team\u2019s first game against No. 20 Louisville<\/a>. The sophomore forward also added four assists, two blocks and two steals Sunday shooting 70% from the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever we\u2019re drawing up a play, one of the first two words out of my mouth is either Azzi or Sarah, so they\u2019re going to be involved one way or another in what we\u2019re doing,\u201d coach Geno Auriemma said. \u201cA lot of times, it\u2019s both. We also think that those not only can get the opportunities that they get, but they draw so much attention that we can get other stuff. But I hope, based on these first two games, that\u2019s kind of the way I want it to go the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe UConn women’s team reacts to a championship banner reveal at Gampel Pavilion before an NCAA college basketball game against Florida State, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo\/Jessica Hill)<\/p>\n

The first quarter was rocky for the Huskies, who began the game on a possession with four consecutive missed field goals. Florida State got out to a hot start from 3-point range while UConn shot a combined 35% from the field, but Fudd and Strong kept the offense alive early.<\/p>\n

Auriemma went to the bench earlier and for more extended minutes than he did in the season opener, and it paid off quickly. Sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel<\/a> checked into the game after the first media timeout, and two seconds later she recorded her first steal of the game. The USC transfer had just four points in the first half, but she played 10 minutes thanks to a dominant performance on the defensive end. Heckel already had a career-high six steals at halftime, contributing to UConn\u2019s 15 turnovers forced against the Seminoles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have (Kayleigh) and KK (Arnold) out there together with Azzi, I think that gives us a really, really good defensive presence out there,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cAnd she\u2019s a way better offensive player than I thought she was. She loves that pull-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redshirt sophomore Jana El Alfy split minutes almost evenly with starting center Serah Williams in the first half. Williams showed some visible nerves early in her first-ever game at Gampel Pavilion beginning 0-for-4 from the field, but the Wisconsin transfer settled in once the third quarter began.<\/p>\n

Florida State began the second half with some momentum by sinking yet another 3-pointer until Williams swung the energy back in UConn\u2019s favor. The senior forward scored five straight points including a forced turnover into an and-1 that drew a massive roar from the sellout crowd, and the spark quickly snowballed into a 15-0 Huskies run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge (for Serah) initially I believe is the pace of the game,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cShe gets caught sometimes between being rushed like you saw a couple of times today, or being a step slow. There was a stretch there where she found a little bit of a rhythm \u2026 It\u2019s going to take a little bit of time, but I like the direction that we\u2019re going with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma pulled all the starters off the floor after the third-quarter run, and Heckel continued to shine down the stretch. She finished scoring in double digits for the second straight game with 12 points plus three assists. Sophomore guard Allie Ziebell also had a strong showing off the bench, playing a career-high 21 minutes and finishing with seven points shooting 75% from the field plus four rebounds and a pair of steals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rotation today, I thought it was pretty good,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cI certainly wanted Allie to play more minutes than she played against Louisville, so we took care of that. You\u2019re not always going to get it right, but I thought we got it pretty close to what I wanted to do tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

After both missed nearly all of the last two seasons with injuries, redshirt sophomore Ayanna Patterson and redshirt senior Caroline Ducharme<\/a> also got to have their moments on banner night. Patterson made her first official game appearance since March 25, 2023 and scored her first points on a layup midway through the fourth quarter. Ducharme nailed a 3-pointer from the wing on the Huskies\u2019 next possession for her first points of the season.<\/p>\n

Ducharme went on to finish with five points and six rebounds, and all 12 UConn players who saw the court against Florida State scored. The bench combined for 35 points, and the team\u2019s 99 total points were the most it has ever recorded in the history of its series with the Seminoles. The Huskies also scored 42 points off of 23 forced turnovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STORRS \u2014 On the day the UConn women\u2019s basketball team hung its 2025 NCAA Championship banner in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27010,27006,28,30,29,3731,9842,27012,27005,27011,27009,27007,27008,27004,26958],"class_list":["post-40481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ashlynn-shade","tag-azzi-fudd","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-state-seminoles","tag-florida-state-womens-basketball","tag-gampel-pavilion","tag-geno-auriemma","tag-kayleigh-heckel","tag-kk-arnold","tag-sarah-strong","tag-serah-williams","tag-uconn-huskies","tag-uconn-womens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}