ORLANDO, Fla. _ Anna Makurat's corner 3-pointer with 1:33 to play in Tuesday's game against Memphis was significant to the UConn women's basketball team for multiple reasons.
For one, the shot gave UConn a 10-point lead over the Tigers, ultimately serving as the dagger that allowed the Huskies to close out with a win over a pesky Memphis squad that refused to go away quietly into the night.
But it also capped yet another solid outing from the freshman who, despite some inconsistencies at the start of the season, seems to be hitting more of a stride as of late.
Unfortunately for the Huskies, that cannot be said for the rest of the reserves, and increasingly some of its starters.
Crystal Dangerfield, Megan Walker and Christyn Williams accounted for 79% of UConn's scoring Tuesday night. Auriemma had laid out at the start of the season that those three, plus Olivia Nelson-Ododa, would be carrying the vast majority of the scoring load, but Tuesday night made clear that such an overreliance on three people isn't going to be sustainable for the Huskies.
Kyla Irwin is 0 for 7 from the floor over the last three games after scoring a career-high 14 against SMU. Even Aubrey Griffin has looked hesitant to drive at times and has struggled to finish on put-back attempts, things she's made look easy at times. Arguably most important for the Huskies, Nelson-Ododa, who had been a fairly reliable presence in the paint to start the season, is going through a rough patch to start the new year. Besides her 13 points against Houston, she combined for 12 points in UConn's two other recent conference games, and went 0 for 8 against Baylor.
An improved Nelson-Ododa is a necessity for UConn to get to where it would like to go; but Auriemma still wants more production from players five through seven (or eight or nine).
"I think we need to get more production from more players," Auriemma said. "It comes and goes. Right now, we're not getting that confident 'come off the bench and we know what we're getting.'
"Now we're trying to win with three players, and then patchwork, patch this up, patch that up, put this guy in for a little bit."
The Huskies have a chance to reverse this trend Thursday night at 6 p.m., when they take on UCF in Orlando to complete their two-game road trip. They expect the Knights to give them another tough fight.
"It's going to be identical to (Memphis)," Auriemma said. "They're a very similar team, plays very similar stuff. And we're on the road. It's our fourth game in what, seven days? ... Hopefully we'll shoot the ball better and hopefully we'll play better defense. Hopefully we'll run better offense. Hopefully we'll get more production from our bench."
Dangerfield predicted the UCF matchup would be, as customary, a "dogfight." That's what life is like for the Huskies in their final year in the AAC, with the target on their back and on the road against one of the conference's better squads.
"They're going be like that even more because teams understand this is our last year in the conference," Dangerfield said. "They already want to beat us, so it's just more fuel to their fire."
