LOS ANGELES — When Blanca Quinonez checked in for the UConn women’s basketball team during the first quarter against USC on Saturday, there had already been eight lead changes and the Huskies were ahead by a single point.
Less than two minutes later, UConn was leading 18-9 and never looked back.
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Quinonez logged six straight points and a pair of steals in her first 90 seconds on the court, setting the tone for the No. 1 Huskies in a dominant 79-51 victory over the No. 16 Trojans at Galen Center. The freshman forward finished with 12 points, four rebounds, two assists a team-high four steals off the bench for her most complete performance against a ranked opponent to date.
Star guard Azzi Fudd was UConn’s engine with a game-high 17 points plus four assists, and she accounted for three of the Huskies’ seven made 3-pointers in the win. Fudd also spent most of her minutes guarding USC star Jazzy Davidson, helping hold the freshman phenom to 10 points shooting just 3-for-13 from the field.
“Our coaches did a great job on scout, so we took that really seriously watching film, knowing what her tendencies are and which hand she likes more,” Fudd said. “I think we just stayed really disciplined today, and it was a team effort. It wasn’t just me. We switched so much that everyone ended up guarding her at some point, so I feel like (it was) really being connected on defense … and knowing how to guard each player.”
UConn dismantled the Trojans on the defensive end, limiting them to a season-low 30.2% from the field and 4-for-19 on 3-pointers. The Huskies logged 26 points off 20 forced turnovers, but they also put together an impressively balanced effort offensively with four players scoring in double digits. Junior guard Ashlynn Shade dropped a season-best 15 points shooting 54.4% from the field with three made 3-pointers, and star forward Sarah Strong added 14 points plus seven rebounds, three assists, three blocks and three steals.
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The Huskies were less efficient than they’ve been from the perimeter going 7-for-19, but they hit 47.7% from the field and had 25 assists on 31 made shots. The victory was UConn’s fourth of the season over a top-25 team, and the team improved to 10-0 for the first time since 2020-21.
After trading buckets during the opening minutes, the Huskies went on a first-quarter run that quickly drained the enthusiasm from USC’s sold-out home arena. Senior center Serah Williams had a strong start UConn with six early points, but the team truly came alive once Quinonez checked in off the bench out of the media timeout. The freshman forward’s back-to-back steals led the Huskies on a 10-0 run, and the Trojans didn’t score a single point in the quarter with Quinonez on the floor.
“I think we had two turnovers through the first half of the first quarter … and then we turned the ball over too much,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “It’s really hard to guard them in transition off of made or missed baskets, but I thought we could do that probably better than anyone that they’ve played. But it’s really hard off of live-ball turnovers.”
UConn started 0-for-4 from 3-point range until Fudd finally nailed one from the left wing in the final minutes of the first to help extend the run to 15 unanswered points. USC didn’t make a field goal for nearly seven minutes to end the quarter, and UConn kept Davidson scoreless until she ended her team’s drought early in the second with a layup.
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But the break in Huskies’ onslaught was brief, and USC’s offense continued to flounder through most of the second quarter. UConn held the Trojans without points for another six minutes and forced three turnovers during that stretch after Davidson scored.
“I never allow myself to go into a game thinking it’s going to be a 30-point game,” Huskies coach Geno Auriemma said. “I knew it would be a good game. I thought it would be physical, I thought it would be fast-paced, and we wanted to make it fast-paced. When we could speed the game up and play really quickly, it was to our benefit. Defensively, our guys were able to do that today.”
UConn has struggled at times to maintain momentum in its most dominant performances this year, but there was no let up from the Huskies as they entered the third quarter with a 22-point lead. The Trojans scored 22 points as shots began to fall out of halftime after they logged 17 in the entire first half, but UConn had an answer every time they tried to make a run. The team put up a game-high 30 points in the third as Shade caught fire scoring eight of her points in the quarter, while Fudd and Strong added seven apiece.
“We work on it so much in practice, knowing where to be and how to find each other, that when it’s in a game it’s just instinct,” Shade said. “I was joking with Azzi on the bench that we were like telepathically connected just the way were were finding each other and knocking down threes.”
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The Huskies took their foot off the gas in the fourth, once again going deep into the bench once their lead became insurmountable. Twelve of the team’s 13 available players saw the court, and though USC was able to outscore the reserve-heavy lineups 12-10 in the final quarter, the energy stayed high for UConn. The Huskies’ sideline had one of its biggest reactions of the game when sophomore Kayleigh Heckel, a transfer from USC, scored her first points against her former team on a flashy layup late in the fourth.
