"Paige is gonna try to carry the team": Geno Aurriema gets real about UConn's offense post Notre Dame loss

Paige Bueckers and No. 2 UConn suffered their first defeat of the 2024-25 season on Thursday when they were thoroughly outplayed by No. 8 Notre Dame in South Bend. While Bueckers posted a 25-point effort, it was all in vain as Hannah Hidalgo and the Fighting Irish produced a scoring masterclass to secure a major win over the Huskies.

One issue that became apparent for UConn in their 79-68 loss to Notre Dame was their offense. While they matched the Fighting Irish’s field goal shooting percentage, the Huskies made just three of their 16 3-point attempts. Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish were far more impressive from beyond the arc, making 10 of their 18 3-point attempts.

During the postgame press conference, UConn coach Geno Auriemma addressed the reality check his team received following their first loss of the season. He spoke about Bueckers' ability to carry the team while highlighting that the team needs to work harder on offense moving forward.

"If you're going to play her the way they played her, which I think is, what she's going to see a lot of, we need more contributions," Auriemma said. "And Paige is going to carry the team by herself when she think there aren't a lot of those contributions, and that's not good for her and that's not good for us."

"So yeah, that's on us coaches. We need to do a better job of that and then we have to play her the whole game. It's another layer on top of that, so, we just got to find some people to do a little bit more than anything tonight to help her struggles." (2:55 mark)

Paige Bueckers' struggles from 3-point range come to the fore in Notre Dame

In the span of five days, the Huskies faced two ranked opponents in Louisville and Notre Dame. Prior to both of those games, Paige Bueckers shot 46.9% from 3-point range. However, she struggled from beyond the arc since then, making just one 3-point attempt across both games.

She failed to connect with any of her four 3-point attempts in Purcell Pavilion but made 11 field goals and three free throws to finish with 25 points against the Fighting Irish.

Top recruit Sarah Strong and Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen were the only players to score 3-pointers for UConn, highlighting their struggles to score from beyond the arc.

Paige Bueckers and the Huskies will be eager to rectify those mistakes in their next game, where they will face the Georgetown Hoyas at the XL Center on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET.