After trip to Germany was scrapped, No. 1 UConn and No. 20 Louisville had a chance to visit Navy
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The standard at UConn is so high that a lapse late in its season opener could have been a significant postgame talking point.
Coach Geno Auriemma would have none of it.
“I don’t ever want to walk off a court this year — because we’re UConn, and we’re defending national champions, and we’re preseason No. 1 — and make wins feel like losses,” he said. “Because we didn’t win by enough, we didn’t win the right way, we had too many lulls, we were too sloppy. Today we were a typical basketball team. A little bit better than typical.”
Sarah Strong scored 21 points and Azzi Fudd added 20 for the top-ranked Huskies, who began their national title defense with a 79-66 win over No. 20 Louisville on Tuesday night. UConn led by 16 after one quarter and by 28 in the third, but a 10-0 run by the Cardinals made it a little closer at the end.
This game — the Armed Forces Classic — was supposed to be played at a base in Germany, but it was moved to the Naval Academy because of the government shutdown. It was still a fascinating experience.
“Being able to come here and see it first hand, we did a little simulator activity, went on a boat and got to eat lunch with them,” Fudd said. “It was really special.”
Louisville went to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in nearby Washington and also had lunch with the Midshipmen.
“The game — obviously I thought our kids competed and played hard,” coach Jeff Walz said. “But I told them after the game, ‘If you didn’t get something out of the speakers that we had, the opportunity to visit with Midshipmen, then you really just lost out on what this trip was all about.’”
UConn was playing its first game after losing Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft. The Huskies jumped out to an early 14-1 lead.
“You can’t play them and go 3 for 18 in the first quarter and expect to win,” Walz said. “If we could get to the first 5-minute timeout, then I thought our kids would be relaxed. And we couldn’t get to that point.”
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