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Message: [QUOTE="Bazz2014, post: 4515725, member: 10369"] I would actually expand this to the whole team. The blessing of having a player like paige is that she can literally create something when the odds are completely stacked against her. How many times has she hit “the shot” or made “the play” when a defense is covering her 2 or 3 or even four on one? Plenty. There’s a feeling when the ball is in her hands that she is inevitable- and it’s incredibly fun to watch. But the downside that sometimes comes with that is that it can encourage the players around her to rely on that, as well. They know that when they need a big bucket, Paige can go get it, so there were times last year, especially in big games like the EE game vs NC State, or even Paige’s freshman year regular season game vs SC at Gampel where the offense almost stagnates because the sole focus is to get the ball to paige and let her do paige things. That option is not there this year. And one of the biggest things I saw last night was that, while AE and Lou absolutely led the run in Q3, every UCONN player contributed, consistently. Nika picks Horstens pocket and gets us a run out layup. Aubrey hits a big 3 to maintain momentum. Dorka had a few great seal and score plays in the paint. They shouldered the burden of winning as a TEAM and continued to cut hard, make great passes to find the open man, drive to the basket and score or kick to keep the flow of the offense, etc. TN came out of a timeout with strict instructions to “not give 11 anything” - but they couldn’t accomplish that, a) because Lou is just unflappable, and b) because no one could leave their man open to double or over help in guarding Lou- because she was never left on an island to do it herself. You had to respect every husky in the game as a threat. It’s an incredible shame that paige and Lou won’t share the court in husky blue and white, but the team bueckers returns to next year have all learned that they don’t have to rely on her to be “the woman” every night. Each and every one of them is a threat that can change the complexion of a game and last night, they all showed up in big moments and did just that. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach