Kayleigh Heckel’s stat line didn’t jump off the page after the UConn women’s basketball team’s rout of St. John’s on Wednesday night, but coach Geno Auriemma went out of his way to praise the sophomore’s performance in the 88-43 win.
Heckel finished with nine points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field and added three assists, but her biggest impact was in the Huskies’ defensive rotation. The team was plus-25 and gave up just 13 points during Heckel’s 18 minutes on the court, and UConn also forced 15 of St. John’s 33 turnovers while she was in the game.
Advertisement
“Heckel had a great game today,” Auriemma said postgame, bringing up the USC transfer unprompted. “It may not show up in the box score, but she played really, really well today. I think if you watch film of her defensively a month ago, and you watch film of her tonight defensively, it’s a completely different player.”
Freshman forward Blanca Quinonez was also a standout against the Red Storm, shooting 7-for-12 for 14 points plus three rebounds and two assists, and she was a major disruptor on the defensive end with four steals and a block. As the Huskies cross the halfway point of the 2025-26 season, Auriemma is thrilled to see the team’s newcomers truly put the pieces together in live action.
“I love when young players, when young kids play great,” Auriemma said. “Even Blanca, If you saw Blanca in the middle of November and you watch her today, it’s not the same player. So they get it eventually, some quicker than others.”
It’s easy to forget amid the Huskies’ dominant start to the season how overwhelmingly young and inexperienced most of the team is. Of the nine active players averaging at least 10 minutes per game, six have spent less than two years in UConn’s system. Sarah Strong may play like she could be a lottery pick in the WNBA Draft tomorrow, but the sophomore phenom is just 56 games into her college career, and Auriemma believes there’s still a long way to go before she hits her ceiling.
Advertisement
“I looked out on the court two games ago, and we had Heckel who’s a sophomore, Allie (Ziebell) who’s a sophomore, Sarah who’s a sophomore, Jana (El Alfy) who’s a sophomore, and Blanca who’s a freshman,” Auriemma said on his radio show ahead of the St. John’s game. “We’re still a young team. There are times when we’re going to look like gangbusters, and there are times when it’s not going to look like that, unfortunately.”
Wisconsin transfer Serah Williams has played more collegiate games than anyone else on the Huskies’ roster, but it’s been a challenge for the senior center to find her footing coming from a program where she was the No. 1 option on both ends of the floor. Now surrounded by elite scorers, Williams is taking a third of shot volume she averaged in her junior season for a career-low 7.3 points per game.
But Williams has started finding other ways to impact the game without being a centerpiece of the offense, leaning into her defensive prowess in recent weeks. The 2024 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year is tied with Strong for first on the team in blocks with 1.5 per game, and that number has skyrocketed over the last five games. Williams has logged 13 blocks since UConn’s 90-64 rout of Iowa on Dec. 20 after recording 11 over her first 11 appearances combined. The senior center grabbed at least one steal in seven of the last eight games and has the second-highest average of her career at 0.9 per game.
“That’s something that I would like love to see more of. The more in practice, the more times that you put yourself in that position to become more of a shot blocker, I think the the better for us,” Auriemma said. “Wherever she’s going to go next year (professionally), she’s going to have to be be able to defend, pick guys in the post, defend on the perimeter, contest shots … Little by little we’re starting to see more of that, and I hope that there’s even more coming up.”
Advertisement
Williams is also developing as a passer, dishing a season-best five assists in UConn’s win over St. John’s. Her connection with Strong in high-low post actions looks stronger game by game, and she’s improved in her decision-making when she gets stuck in the paint with four of her assists Wednesday going out to guards with more open looks.
Auriemma knows that UConn is one of the most difficult places to play as an incoming freshman or a first-year transfer. He’s seen the inclination of the newcomers this year to defer to the star power of Strong or fifth-year guard Azzi Fudd rather than chase their own opportunities. While he said it’s not the worst problem to have, there’s something satisfying about seeing how much better the team can look once players get past the learning curve.
“You’re stepping into a program where there’s a set of standards that you have, and when you first get in here, you’re not sure how we do things,” Auriemma said. “So you spend more time watching rather than doing, and it takes a little bit of time and a little bit of talking from the coaches a lot of times for those kids to get a little more comfortable and little more assertive … but eventually they get it.”
UConn women’s basketball dismantles St. John’s in 88-43 win behind 46 points off turnovers
