STORRS — Sarah Strong was less excited after winning a national championship than she was entering the postgame press conference alongside Allie Ziebell after the UConn women’s basketball team’s win over Xavier on Wednesday night.
“You all saw Allie’s 10 3-pointers right?” Strong asked gleefully, giving Ziebell a round of applause as she took her seat. Then, she looked down at the box score in front of her. “Allie, oh my god.”
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Ziebell blushed, visibly uncomfortable with the praise her teammates continuously showered on her throughout her historic night. The sophomore guard led UConn to a 97-39 rout at Gampel Pavilion, logging 34 points and shooting 10-for-14 from beyond the arc to double her previous career highs in both points and made 3-pointers.
“A lot of water was sprayed, so I got a little drenched, but it was a lot of fun,” Ziebell said of the postgame locker room with a laugh. “You could tell how happy (the team) was, and they just got so much joy out of it, clearly.”
The highlight of Ziebell’s performance came in the fourth quarter, when she drilled four straight shots from the perimeter on consecutive possessions for a solo 12-0 run that sent the rest of the Huskies into a frenzy. Freshman Kelis Fisher ran up and down the sideline high-fiving teammates and holding three fingers in the air, while Strong waved a towel over her head with her mouth agape in delighted shock. The entire team was already on its feet when Ziebell caught the pass that would become her 10th make, and center Jana El Alfy had to use all of her 6-foot-5 wingspan to hold the players on the bench back from leaping onto the court as they celebrated.
“I thought it was the best thing ever,” junior guard Ashlynn Shade said, grinning ear-to-ear. “Every time she hit a three I think I put my hands up and was like, running down the court celebrating. I was just so happy for her, because she puts in so much hard work, and we see it every day in practice. It’s just so much fun to support her on a career night like that.”
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Ziebell’s lights-out shooting etched her name into UConn’s record book alongside a trio of Huskies legends. She joins Hall of Famer Maya Moore, three-time NCAA champion Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and three-time All-American Katie Lou Samuelson as the only players to sink 10 3-pointers in a game, and she was the first to hit the number in a game at Gampel Pavilion. Her 34 points were the most ever scored by a UConn player off the bench, and it was the highest-scoring performance on the team in any game this season.
But what stood out the most to coach Geno Auriemma wasn’t Ziebell’s stat line. It was the confidence with which she carried herself on the way there.
“That’s the Allie that I saw in high school. That’s the Allie that I saw every summer. That’s the kid that we recruited, and why we recruited her,” Auriemma said. “I think she’s a tough kid. She’s good with the ball in her hands. She’s smart. It’s just been fun watching her. She had a great week of practice, and when you do that, it tends to follow you into games.”
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The level of assertiveness Ziebell showed on Wednesday night never would have been possible during her freshman year — or even earlier in this season. Auriemma said he’s had multiple conversations with the sophomore guard about her tendency to pass up opportunities in favor of the bigger stars on the roster. But he reminded Ziebell that she came to UConn with a pedigree of her own: She was the No. 7 recruit in the country in the class of 2024, won the 3-point contest at the McDonald’s All-American game in high school, and led Team USA in 3-pointers en route to a gold medal at the 2023 U19 World Cup.
“I think she spent all of last year like, ‘Oh wow, I’m playing with Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd.’ She spent way more time being starstruck than actually playing,” Auriemma said. “We had a long conversation this year where I said, who do you defer to? She said Azzi and Sarah. I said well, Azzi’s leaving at the end of this year. Who are you going to defer to next year? ‘I don’t know, Sarah and Blanca maybe.’ Like, she’s in that mindset. I asked why, and she said ‘Well, they’re All-Americans.’ I said, last time I checked you were a high school All-American too.”
Ziebell wasn’t the only member of her class shining against Xavier. Effortless dominance has become almost unremarkable for Strong, who finished with 25 points shooting 10-for-14 from the field plus five rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block on Wednesday. The sophomore forward has scored in double digits in 36 consecutive games including 10 20-point performances this season, and she and Ziebell hit a combined 72.4% from the field while the rest of the team went 15-for-40.
Sophomore point guard Kayleigh Heckel was another standout, setting a pair of career highs with a team-leading eight assists and eight rebounds. She assisted on six of Ziebell’s 3-pointers and had her arms up in celebration of the 10th make before it even left her classmate’s hands. The USC transfer also snagged three steals and added six points on 50% shooting.
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“Somebody’s gonna have a great time coaching them,” Auriemma joked with a chuckle. “Whenever I think about our team, there’s wow moments for me at how young we are. You don’t think of it that way … but you look out on the floor, and a lot of times there are a lot of underclassmen out there … They need reps, they need playing time, they need to feel successful. They need to have nights like tonight.”
