UConn women’s basketball routs Butler, 92-47

UConn women’s basketball notched its first wire-to-wire blowout of the season with a 92-47 win over the Butler Bulldogs.

For the first time all year, the Huskies’ seniors carried the load.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa scored a season-high 19 points on 8-10 shooting and added seven rebounds and five assists. She also made her first 3-pointer of the season and three other jumpers.

Christyn Williams had her best game of the season with a career-high seven steals to go with 19 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Evina Westbrook came off the bench for the first time in her college career and responded with a 13-point, four-assist day.

Much of UConn’s offense came from its defense. The Huskies scored 43 of their 92 points off turnovers while Butler failed to cash in on any of UConn’s seven giveaways. The Bulldogs made just 6-26 from beyond the arc and went just 18-50 from the floor overall.

UConn began the game on a 9-0 run, which set the tone for the rest of the night. The Huskies forced Butler into eight turnovers in the first quarter and converted them into 12 points the other way.

It took the Bulldogs nearly three and half minutes to make their first basket and hit just three field goals in the opening period. Ducharme hit a pair of 3-pointers from the same spot to give UConn a 25-9 lead after one. In the second quarter, UConn opened with five straight points from Williams and eventually extended the run to 11-0 before Butler finally found the basket.

The Huskies put together an 8-0 stretch later in the quarter to push the lead over 30 points but the Bulldogs scored the final points before halftime, which meant UConn only went into the locker room up 29.

The score got out of control in the third quarter. The Huskies quickly extended the gap to 40 points and only needed a few more minutes to push it to a 50-point margin as UConn cruised to the 45-point victory.

Nika Mühl got a surprise start in the place of Westbrook, her first of the season. At halftime, head coach Geno Auriemma told SNY that Mühl was on a minutes limit, so he wanted her to play the game still mattered.

“Why let her sit on the bench when we can start the game and use those minutes up?” he said. “You can see the difference she makes on our team.”

Mühl finished with five assists and three rebounds but did not attempt a shot in 17 minutes of action. Meanwhile, Caroline Ducharme continued to be UConn’s most consistent scorer with 18 points.

Amari DeBerry and Piath Gabriel both returned after missing the Huskies’ last game. DeBerry played a career-high 17 minutes while Gabriel scored her first points of the season.

With the win, UConn improves to 8-3 on the season and 3-0 in Big East play. Next, the Huskies will return home to face-off against Xavier at the XL Center on Saturday.