Everything Geno Auriemma had to say about Paige Bueckers’ injury scare in UConn’s win vs Villanova

Paige Bueckers had a scary moment during No. 7 UConn's 83-52 win at Villanova which silenced fans at the Finneran Pavilion on Sunday. The redshirt senior suffered a blow to her knee after contesting a loose ball with Villanova's Jasmine Boscoe with 1:18 to go in the third quarter, which caused an awkward fall.

After spending a few seconds on the ground, Bueckers got up and limped off the court on her own, which would have given some relief to the Huskies' head coach, Geno Auriemma. She quickly headed to the locker room and returned to sit out the rest of the game on the bench with an ice pack on her knee.

Following the Huskies' convincing victory, Auriemma told SNY that he was optimistic about Bueckers' condition, believing it was not a major concern.

"She's pretty good," Auriemma said. "It was unfortunate. The kid dove for the ball, and I'm sure people saw Paige turn her back, and it was a weird, weird situation. And that's funny, because we had someone at the scorer's table ready to check in. She'll be fine. She looks good, but, you know, I'm optimistic. Let's put it that way. I feel good."

Geno Auriemma praises UConn's response following Paige Bueckers' injury scare

UConn had a massive 26-point lead when Paige Bueckers left the court following her injury. Despite the setback, they added 20 more points to their tally to score a comfortable 83-52 victory over Villanova.

Auriemma was particularly pleased with the team stepping up and doing what was expected of them following Bueckers' injury, believing the Huskies can build on this result to improve in the upcoming games.

"You got to move on and you got to play, and I love the way our team responded to everything we tried to do today," Auriemma said (Timestamp: 0:57). "Everything was exactly like we drew it up, and we can build on this.

"I think that the USC game (a 72-70 loss on Dec. 21) took a while for us to kind of get it out of our system. And I think today was a huge start in doing that."

Despite having her game cut short, Paige Bueckers just missed out on a double-double, finishing with 15 points and nine assists along with three rebounds. Top recruit Sarah Strong impressed for the Huskies yet again, finishing as the team's top scorer with 21 points, while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out four assists.

With their win over Villanova, UConn improved to 13-2 overall and 4-0 in Big East conference play.