Despite uneven performance, UConn taking the positives from win over Louisville

For the first 10 minutes of the season opener in the Armed Forces Classic at the Naval Academy, UConn women’s basketball looked the part as the defending national champions and preseason No. 1.

The Huskies jumped No. 20 Louisville in an opening quarter where seemingly everything went right. They started on an 8-0 run and held the Cardinals without a basket for the first 4:43. The offense flowed with little resistance while the defense allowed just three baskets on 18 attempts en route to a 25-9 lead.

The good times didn’t last, though. Over the final three quarters, UConn got out-scored 57-54 and saw a 28-point lead dwindle to as little as 10. The Huskies shot 4-26 from three and only attempted eight free throws.

All in all, it was a pretty standard season opener — some good, some bad with plenty to build off and improve upon. Most importantly, UConn still came out on top, 79-66.

“Everything's a learning experience,” Azzi Fudd said. “That was good practice, good little moments for us to work on and, again, keep building on.”

While Geno Auriemma acknowledged his team’s performance was far from perfect, he didn’t want to get bogged down in the negatives.

“I don't ever want to walk off court this year — because we're UConn and we're defending national champions and we're preseason number one — and make wins feel like losses because we didn't win by enough. We didn't win the right way. We had too many laws. We were too sloppy,” he explained. “Today, we were a typical basketball team — little bit better than typical. But generally speaking, that's what happens in basketball games: You have peaks and valleys. You play really well, you don't play well. You shoot good, you don't shoot good.

“So for the first game out, I thought it was a tremendous success.”

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