STORRS — If the UConn women’s basketball team played every game against Xavier, Allie Ziebell would be a first-team All-American.
The sophomore guard knocked down a career-high five 3-pointers when the Huskies routed the Musketeers by 65 points back in November, but she ascended to a new level of dominance in the rematch leading the team to a 97-39 win on Wednesday night at Gampel Pavilion with 10 makes from beyond the arc.
UConn was down six players against Xavier with starting center Serah Williams (ankle), third-leading scorer Blanca Quinonez (shoulder) and reserves Caroline Ducharme (migraine) and Gandy Malou-Mamel (illness) all ruled out in addition to Morgan Cheli and Ice Brady with long-term injuries.
The shortened roster meant the Huskies badly needed a big performance from Ziebell off the bench, and she delivered beyond all expectation. She tied the program record for single-game 3-pointers hitting 10-for-14 from the perimeter to finish with 34 points, more than doubling her previous career high of 17. She also added three assists and two steals.
Ziebell joins an elite group of players in tying the record, most recently matched by Katie Lou Samuelson in 2017. Hall of Famer Maya Moore set the record originally in 2009, and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis also hit 10 in 2014.
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The Huskies’ sophomores propelled the 58-point victory with All-American forward Sarah Strong adding 25 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Junior guard Ashlynn Shade set a career high of her own with nine steals, also logging 12 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Almost nothing went right for the Huskies in the first quarter as they adjusted to a new rotation with Williams and Quinonez both sidelined. UConn gave up 17 points in the first quarter and trailed for more than two minutes while it struggled to get its offense going.
Strong carried the early effort with 12 points shooting 5-for-6 in the opening quarter, but the rest of the team was a combined 4-for-15 from the field, and the Huskies also went 1-for-13 from 3-point range. The only player to hit a shot from deep in the first was Ziebell, but once the sophomore guard saw one fall, she caught fire.
Strong logged a steal and scored the first four points of the second quarter for UConn, but the Huskies really began to roll once Ziebell knocked down her second 3-pointer to start them on a 7-0 run. She then cashed two more on back-to-back possessions, and Strong added a make of her own from the perimeter to make it 16 unanswered points for UConn.
Ziebell added another 3-pointer late in the quarter to tie her career high, entering halftime with 15 points all coming from beyond the arc. The team improved to 71.4% on 3-pointers in the second quarter after hitting 7.7% in the first.
Fudd, usually the Huskies second-leading scorer, had one of her worst offensive starts of the season hitting just 1-for-9 from the field in the first half. She missed a free throw for the first time since the team’s 2025 Sweet 16 win over Oklahoma, ended a streak of 40 consecutive makes from the line.
But the redshirt senior star finally got a shot to fall after halftime, draining her first 3-pointer to set the Huskies on a another massive run. The team put up another 15 unanswered points while holding Xavier scoreless for almost five minutes, and it forced more turnovers than it allowed points in the third quarter. Ziebell connected for her sixth 3-pointer with three minutes left in the quarter to break her personal record, and Shade also got into a rhythm with 10 points in the third alone. Across the second and third quarters, UConn outscored Xavier 52-14.
The Huskies kept feeding Ziebell in the fourth, and the sophomore’s hot hand never stopped burning. She sank four 3-pointers in a row over less than two minutes to push UConn’s lead to 53 points, and the crowd at Gampel Pavilion reached a new decibel each time another shot dropped. Behind Ziebell, the rest of the team hit just 5-for-20 beyond the arc.