HARTFORD, Conn. -- Playing in front of a home crowd for the first time in her short-but-illustrious UConn career, Huskies star sophomore and reigning Naismith Player of the Year Paige Bueckers shot just once in the first quarter of the team's season opener against Arkansas on Sunday.
But her lack of offensive production wouldn't last.
By the end of No. 2 UConn's 95-80 victory over the Razorbacks (who handed the Huskies their sole loss during the 2020-21 regular season), Bueckers had more than given the fans something to cheer for. She scored a career-high 34 points and matched Kerry Bascom's record from 1989 for points in a season opener. Shooting 15-for-19, she became the third UConn player in the past 20 seasons to score 30 or more points on 75% or better shooting in the season debut. Her performance marked the most points by a UConn player without a 3-pointer since Tina Charles in 2010.
Bueckers was seemingly everywhere on the court throughout the game, and when she had the ball, she was nearly flawless. She didn't record a single turnover.
"I just kind of took what the defense was giving me, and my teammates got me open," Bueckers said after the game. "They passed me the ball really well. I kind of read what the game needed and I felt like my shot was going in. I felt good. It was just rhythm.
"My teammates have a lot of confidence in me to make plays and make things happen, and I try and do that."
Coach Geno Auriemma called her performance "the most aggressive I've seen her since she's been at UConn" during his postgame interview on SNY.
The game marked the debuts of heralded freshmen Azzi Fudd and Caroline Ducharme, the No. 1 and No. 5 recruits in the nation respectively, as well as Ohio State graduate transfer Dorka Juhasz. But it was seniors Christyn Williams and Evina Westbrook who took early control of the game for the Huskies -- scoring 15 of the team's first 19 points -- before Bueckers took over and proved she is still very much the team's main attraction.
Bueckers, who also recorded six rebounds and four assists, was the only player for either team who played the entire game -- something Auriemma thinks might become more common for the guard this season.
"Maybe she'll play 40 [minutes] every game, or at least play until I think the game is in hand," Auriemma said. "Ideally, you don't want that, but when you're playing a team that has so many ways to score, you just have to keep your best scorers on the floor as long as possible.
"When you go 15-for-19, that's a pretty good night. There isn't any place on the floor she can't play. There isn't any place on the floor that she's not comfortable. There isn't any situation that she finds herself in that she doesn't know what to do next."
Auriemma heaped on the praise for Bueckers after the victory, but he was less impressed with the team's overall efforts on defense. Arkansas' 80 points were the most allowed to a UConn opponent in a season opener since an overtime loss to Louisiana Tech in 1995. He was critical of the total points allowed, as well as the team's 19 fouls. He mocked the Huskies' effort on the defensive end of the floor in his signature sarcastic style.
"The reality of the situation is sometimes the way the other team plays forces you to play a certain way," Auriemma said. "The only other alternative is we have to become a zone team. Just stand there, I think that's a good kind of defense for this group. Just stand there and yell, 'Miss.' I think I can coach that. [Yell] 'Miss,' and then rebound and then run down to the other end. That's not bad."
Bueckers, Williams and Westbrook all agreed that their defensive effort needed improvement when speaking to the media, and emphasized it would be their main focus at practice this week before going to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. The Huskies open play at the event against Minnesota on Saturday.
"I'll be honest with you, we are not happy with our defensive play today," Williams said. "We have a lot of things we have to work on and a lot of things we have to clean up. There's no reason they should have scored that many points."
Still, the team found some silver lining in its defensive performance. Williams glanced over the box score before leaving the news conference, and she couldn't mask her excitement over yet another Bueckers contribution.
"You had two blocks," Williams said to Bueckers. "Wow."
Bueckers just smiled and shrugged.