MANSFIELD, Conn. — The UConn Women won a nail-biter Monda night in the Elite Eight against Baylor University, hanging on to win 69-67 after being down by 10 points in the 3rd quarter.
While the Huskies have every right to celebrate their win, they have a lot of work ahead of them to get ready for the Final Four match-up on Friday.
Head coach Geno Auriemma was forced to give the girls a harsh reality in the 3rd quarter when they trailed behind Baylor.
“There’s no other choice, I wish I could give you a third, but there is no other choice. So that’s great coaching, right? We either win, or we go home," he said.
Paige Bueckers, a freshman all-star on the team, pulled through and helped the Huskies come out on top.
“We just didn’t want to go home, and we wanted to keep competing and make it to the final four. I think we just really strung together," said Bueckers. "I think that’s the biggest thing for our team is just coming together when times get tough and sticking together and never losing that confidence."
Although celebrations look different this year for students due to the pandemic, the excitement still lives on throughout Husky nation.
“Obviously we have the best women’s basketball team ever, so everybody’s really excited about it,” said faculty member Crystal Rogers-Reed.
Hanna Ashe, a freshman at UConn, is proud to finally be a Husky, after years of cheering them on.
“It’s super exciting. I’m a freshman this year so going into committing to UConn, I knew they were a great team," she said. "It’s even more exciting to be a student here and be a part of it and root for my own school."
Amy Dave, a junior who also is a UConn cheerleader, said: “We’re so excited. It was a very close game so we were definitely very nervous watching it. It was definitely a good match”.
She said the cheer squad is whole-heartedly supporting the team from a distance.
“It’s definitely different not being at the games and not being able to be right there to cheer them on and not having that hype there, but we’re definitely still cheering them on from afar and being there as support”.
UConn faces off in the Final Four this Friday.
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