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How intensity of UConn-Notre Dame rivalry game could help Huskies’ newbies in repeat title push
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- How intensity of UConn-Notre Dame rivalry game could help Huskies’ newbies in repeat title push
STORRS — After the sold-out home crowd let out the final "WOOF" of its pregame chant before tipoff between the UConn women's basketball team and longtime rival Notre Dame , the Huskies' packed student section added a new line to the end of the classic cheer.
"(Bleep) Notre Dame!"
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The Fighting Irish's last trip to Storrs in 2023 snapped UConn's four-game home win streak in the series, so the historic matchup returned to Gampel Pavilion with a fervor Monday night. The arena hollered with particular gusto after Notre Dame superstar Hannah Hidalgo was announced in the starting lineup, and it hit its loudest decibel of the game when the All-American guard missed a free throw early in the second quarter — perhaps topped only by the reaction to a pull-up 3-pointer Ashlynn Shade drained on the next play.
It was USC transfer Kayleigh Heckel's first time playing in the UConn-Notre Dame rivalry, but the energy in Gampel Pavilion took her back to the heated atmospheres she experienced last season during the Trojans' crosstown battles with UCLA.
"It was really cool," Heckel said. "Rivalries have always been fun especially last year with the UCLA-USC rivalries, so it kind of felt a little similar to that, but it's obviously a big difference playing against Notre Dame being at UConn."
Heckel's role was bigger on Monday night than it ever was at USC, where she averaged just nine minutes across three meetings against UCLA. It took her a half to get into a rhythm, but once she settled in, she thrived under the bright lights. The sophomore point guard played 19 minutes and scored all nine of her points after halftime, hitting a pair of 3-pointers for just the third time in a game this season, and she was also a key piece of UConn's defensive rotation on Hidalgo in the 85-47 rout .
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"The second time that her rotation comes up, she goes out and she's a completely different player," coach Geno Auriemma said. "Kayleigh was never really known as a 3-point shooter, and she's worked really, really hard at that … so when those things are happening for her, that's a great sign for us. … And she knows nothing about how to win these games, so it was great for her to be in that game."
For the Huskies' other newcomers, Monday's game was unlike any environment they'd ever played in before.
Blanca Quinonez spent the last five years playing professionally in Italy , where her team's home arena held less than 2,000 fans at full capacity. The freshman forward had some standout moments, recording a block in her first five seconds on the court and scoring her first points on a deft post move around Notre Dame's senior center, but the pressure of the rivalry showed in her final stat line. Quinonez finished with eight points, shooting 0-for-5 from 3-point range despite averaging 42% on the season, and she also gave up a team-high five turnovers for the first time since Nov. 16.
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Wisconsin transfer Serah Williams was also feeling the heightened emotions of her first Notre Dame game, earning a technical foul in the final seconds of the fourth quarter after getting tangled up with Irish forward Gisela Sanchez. Wisconsin never finished higher than 10th in the Big Ten during Williams' three years with the program, so she almost never had the opportunity to play games with these kind of stakes — and certainly not in front of more than 10,000 die-hard fans on national television.
The tech was the first assessed to any UConn player since 2023, and though Auriemma said he warned Williams in the locker room, "Don't you dare throw a punch," he enjoyed seeing her channel that competitive fire. The senior center finished the game with 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting from the field, and she brought down eight boards for her second-best rebounding performance of the season.
"Her eight rebounds I think were the kind of rebounds she needs to get in a game like this," Auriemma said. "She needs to be more aggressive. She needs to be a physical presence in there. She does need to have that little bit of an attitude that got her that technical."
Auriemma prefers playing marquee non-conference matchups in the second half of the season to break up the grind of Big East play as preparation for the postseason — and the team has one more on the horizon when No. 17 Tennessee comes to Hartford on Feb. 1. The Huskies coach has reiterated throughout the season that a national championship isn't won or lost in January, and it's invaluable for players to experience atmospheres reminiscent of the NCAA Tournament without the win-or-go home stakes.
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"Playing in this game for the first time at this level, you have to have a certain mindset to be able to play in this game and games of this magnitude," Auriemma said. "And this is what's going to happen in March. The other guys are okay because they've been in that situation, so for Blanca and Serah, this was really good for them."
