Geno Auriemma lauds freshman for stepping up when Paige Bueckers struggled: "Sarah poses a problem for teams that's going to be hard to solve"

UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma was able to steer his team to their 10th straight Big East win on Saturday. Against the Creighton Bluejays on the road with a hostile environment, the sixth-ranked team in the nation did not let their lead slip away despite a number of close calls. They came away with a 72-61 victory, leaving the CHI Center Omaha with their 19th overall win of the 2024-2025 season.

His standout rookie, Sarah Strong, continued her stellar first-year campaign, as she posted a game-high 26 points along with an all-around stat line of 12 rebounds, three assists, five steals and four blocks. Meanwhile, veteran guard Paige Bueckers did drop 22 markers, five boards and four dimes but did shoot poorly from the field, going just 9-out-of-20.

Indeed, Auriemma is lucky to have the backcourt-frontcourt dynamic pairing between Strong and Bueckers. During the post-game presser, the 70-year-old opened up about how much his freshman stalwart impacts the game for UConn especially when the fourth-year sensation struggles at times.

"I do think Sarah poses a problem for teams that's going to be hard for them to solve. Today, she missed shots that you guys have watched her make all season long, so that happens. It's part of basketball but, we know that if things are a little bit slow for us, we have a couple of things that we run where she's going to touch the ball everytime down the floor," Auriemma said. (6:20)

"It's hard for a team to feel like, 'Well, we did a great job on Paige and then, boom, you're getting hit on the other end," he then added.

Much to the delight of Auriemma, the Huskies remain top of the Big East conference. In their goal of reclaiming the national title to the program after nine grueling years, the 11-time national champion coach will need a lot of contributions from everywhere.

Geno Auriemma says contributions from everyone in the lineup will make UConn successful

For a team led by Sarah Strong and Paige Bueckers, the UConn Huskies will need more than those two if they plan on winning not just the Big East this year, but also potentially the national championship. This is what Geno Auriemma hopes to see from his squad moving forward, as told in the post-game presser.

"Every game's different. The last game we just played, Paige started off pretty much taking the game over in the first quarter and today, it didn't play out like that. So, somebody has to step up. We talked about that in shootaround today. We have to have contributions from a lot of people," he shared. (5:35)

The Huskies' next conference matchup is on Wednesday, Jan. 29, against the DePaul Blue Demons on the road wherein Auriemma hopes more players from his team could log in more productive minutes.