{"id":601547,"date":"2026-02-13T21:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/601547\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T21:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:14:14","slug":"uconn-women-focused-on-growth-at-marquette-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/601547\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn women focused on growth at Marquette: How to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UConn women\u2019s basketball<\/a> team was ahead by 19 points at halftime of Wednesday\u2019s win over Creighton<\/a>, but as far as Geno Auriemma was concerned, the Huskies were losing where it mattered most.<\/p>\n

The Bluejays, without a single player taller than 6 feet 2 on the court, led No. 1 UConn 20-15 on the glass, and the Huskies combined for a single offensive board in the half. With just five games left in the regular season, rebounding has become a constant point of emphasis for Auriemma as he searches for issues to nitpick with his undefeated squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went in a locker room and I said that we didn\u2019t even attempt to get an offensive rebound,\u201d Auriemma said after the Huskies\u2019 94-44 victory<\/a>. \u201cWe shoot the ball, and everybody jogs back on you. And I said I don\u2019t understand. You know, you don\u2019t need any talent to be an offensive rebounder. All you need is, when the ball leaves somebody\u2019s hand, you automatically put yourself in a position to chase it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the stats, UConn is one of the best teams in the country in just about every area. They lead the nation in assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, field-goal percentage, three-point percentage and scoring defense while ranking top five in scoring offense, steals per game and turnover margin. But the glaring outlier in the Huskies\u2019 numbers is on the boards. The team is 50th in rebounding margin, 112th in defensive rebounds and 228th in offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make so many shots,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cBut when the shots are not going in, the ones that don\u2019t go in, I want us to get better at getting some of those back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma\u2019s other complaint after the Creighton win was some early disjointedness in the offense, leading to an especially underwhelming first quarter. Sophomore forward Sarah Strong accounted for 12 of the team\u2019s first 19 points, and while it\u2019s a luxury to have stars capable of taking over when the team is struggling collectively, Auriemma doesn\u2019t want the team to become overly reliant on its best players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no flow. It was just everybody running around looking for something; I don\u2019t even know what,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cThen the rest of the time there was a flow, like everybody was playing together. To me, that\u2019s the only chance we have to be really, really good. We have some players that we can isolate them and play one-on-one or two-on-two. But that\u2019s what I\u2019m always looking for: Is there a kind of a rhythm and a flow to our offense?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UConnUConn forward Sarah Strong (21) is guarded by Creighton center Elizabeth Gentry in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo\/Jessica Hill)<\/p>\n

With the regular season winding down, UConn will look to keep fine-tuning when it faces Marquette in a Valentine\u2019s Day battle on the road. The Huskies dominated the first time the teams met in December in Hartford, beating the Golden Eagles, 89-53, with four players scoring in double digits. Strong put up a team-high 22 points shooting 3-for-4 on 3-pointers despite giving up six turnovers, and Williams had one of her best games of Big East play with 11 points and six boards plus three assists, a block and a steal.<\/p>\n

Behind Strong and star guard Azzi Fudd<\/a>, freshman forward Blanca Quinonez<\/a> was UConn\u2019s third-leading scorer against Marquette with 12 points on 50% shooting. Quinonez has missed the last five games after reaggravating a shoulder injury initially suffered in November, but Auriemma said she could make her return to the court on Saturday in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

Having Quinonez back bolsters the Huskies in multiple areas: On top of her 10.7 points per game, she averages 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.8 steals. She is also a uniquely versatile scorer for her size, shooting 57.4% from the field and 40.4% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

But the biggest question surrounding the freshman\u2019s return is how Auriemma will adjust the rotation given sophomore guard Allie Ziebell<\/a>\u2018s impressive string of performances during Quinonez\u2019s absence. Ziebell has scored in double digits five times in the last six games shooting 50% or better from the field, headlined by her 34-point performance against Xavier on Jan. 28 and the 20-piece she put up against Creighton on Wednesday. She also logged a career-high four steals in a win over Butler last weekend and grabbed a career-best five rebounds at DePaul on Feb. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she doesn\u2019t run back on defense, that sucker is going to the bench forever when Blanca comes back,\u201d Auriemma joked of Ziebell. \u201cWhen someone\u2019s not available, that\u2019s really an opportunity for other people, like \u2018This is my shot.\u2019 \u2026 Allie can do a maybe a few of the things Blanca can do, but she has some experience. She was a point guard in high school, so she knows where the ball\u2019s supposed to go, and she can shoot it like nobody else \u2026 There\u2019s going to be games where she\u2019s going to be a big factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to watch<\/p>\n

Site: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee<\/p>\n

Time\/date: 1 p.m., Saturday<\/p>\n

Team records: UConn 26-0 (15-0), Marquette 16-9 (10-6)<\/p>\n

Series record: UConn leads 23-1<\/p>\n

Last meeting: 89-53 UConn, Dec. 17 in Hartford<\/p>\n

TV: FS1<\/p>\n

Streaming: FOX Sports app<\/p>\n

Radio:\u00a0UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports 97.9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UConn women\u2019s basketball team was ahead by 19 points at halftime of Wednesday\u2019s win over Creighton, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[80266,61699,6114,7,3426,14251,217,2340,925,6108,2680,11893,2679,14182,19969,231,772,1544,6115,6116,66,923,6107,6112],"class_list":{"0":"post-601547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-al-mcguire-center","9":"tag-allie-ziebell","10":"tag-azzi-fudd","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-big-east","13":"tag-blanca-quinonez","14":"tag-college-basketball","15":"tag-connecticut","16":"tag-ct-news","17":"tag-geno-auriemma","18":"tag-hartford-courant","19":"tag-jana-el-alfy","20":"tag-local-news","21":"tag-marquette-golden-eagles","22":"tag-marquette-womens-basketball","23":"tag-ncaa","24":"tag-ncaa-basketball","25":"tag-ncaab","26":"tag-sarah-strong","27":"tag-serah-williams","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-uconn-huskies","30":"tag-uconn-womens-basketball","31":"tag-womens-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116065395086496636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}