SPOKANE, Wash. -- At halftime of UConn's Sweet 16 matchup against Oklahoma, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma was displeased with star player Paige Bueckers, who had a team-high 11 points but made some defensive miscues in the second period that helped the Sooners take a 36-32 lead into the break.
Auriemma told Bueckers that once her defensive mentality returned, she could start going about winning the game for them -- and she did just that.
Bueckers exploded for 29 second-half points, single-handedly outscoring the Sooners in the final 20 minutes and finishing with a career-high 40 to lead the No. 2 seed Huskies to an 82-59 win.
UConn will play in its 29th Elite Eight all time, and its 18th in the past 19 seasons, Monday against 1-seed USC, which beat 5-seed Kansas State later Saturday without injured superstar JuJu Watkins.
Bueckers, the presumptive No. 1 draft pick in next month's WNBA draft, became the first UConn player ever to score 40 points in an NCAA tournament game, and the 29-point half was also a first. She did so with her trademark efficient shooting, finishing 16-for-27 from the floor.
The effort elicited a standing ovation from the crowd at Spokane Arena as she checked out of the game with 3:08 remaining.
"Paige was spectacular," Auriemma said. "That was as good a game as I've seen her play the whole time she's been here, at the most important time."
Aside from a scoreless second quarter, Oklahoma had no answer for Bueckers, who devastated them in the midrange (8-for-14) and beyond the arc (6-for-8). In a particularly sensational stretch to start the fourth quarter, she scored 19 straight points as the Huskies blew open the game, hitting 8 of 9 shots, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range. In that same span, the Sooners managed only five points, all on free throws.
"When it starts happening in a game, in the back of your mind, you go, 'Here it goes,'" Auriemma said. "And you know that unless the other team does something, it's just going to keep piling it on."
After tying her career high in scoring with 34 points in Monday's second-round win over South Dakota State, Bueckers has recorded 74 points across the past two games, the most in a two-game span in program history. The urgency never has been greater for her in this last effort to clinch a national title before she leaves for the WNBA.
"Little by little it's dawned on her, I think, that there is no next year," Auriemma said. "There is no 'I can get this anytime I want.' You're going to have to get it now or it won't be available anymore."
Added Bueckers: "Honestly, we just wanted to keep our season going as long as possible. We all love playing together, we love playing here. We just love this program and everything it means."
Bueckers' onslaught helped flip on its head a game that Oklahoma unexpectedly led at halftime. The Sooners found a groove in a second quarter in which they outscored UConn 24-15, featuring 13 points from guard Payton Verhulst -- some of which were scored with Bueckers guarding her.
It wasn't simply Bueckers' 29 second-half points that made the difference; UConn's offense was fueled by its defense, which held Oklahoma to 23 points in the second half.
The Huskies made the turnover-prone Sooners play to that reputation. Oklahoma had 23 turnovers -- one more than its 22 made field goals -- and 18 of those came from UConn steals. Even when the Sooners did manage to get shots off, Verhulst put up just three points outside of that high-scoring second frame, while star center Raegan Beers was limited to 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting.
After the game, a whiteboard in the UConn locker room read "59 points, season low!" to celebrate the Huskies' defensive effort against the typically high-octane Sooners.
"I think we got a little bit lazy or a little bit distracted [in the second quarter], and that happens when you're not making shots," Auriemma said. "The second half ... our team defense was fantastic, it really was."
Added Bueckers: "They had a great first half, and we didn't make a lot of shots, but we dug down defensively, stuck to our defense, and I think that's what we want to just hang our hat on, is defense winning games."
The Huskies' 23-point margin of victory is the fourth-largest by a team in NCAA tournament history after trailing at the half, and second-largest in the Sweet 16 or later.
But Auriemma still saw it less as a single-player takeover and more as a team accomplishment. UConn's guards were critical in making it difficult for Oklahoma to get the ball into the paint, with four each coming away with three steals. Freshmen Sarah Strong and Jana El Alfy combined for 20 boards, and sophomore Ashlynn Shade brought 12 points off the bench, including eight in the first half when scoring was tough to come by for the Huskies.
"It's supposed to be like that, right?" Auriemma said. "It's supposed to be a collaboration. Some people can do big things and can do a lot of things. That's Paige's role on this team, to do big things. We have other players that their role is to do smaller things, and if they all do their small things really, really well, we add them up to the big things that Paige is going to do, and we end up with a great win."