UConn’s Paige Bueckers returns from knee sprain, moves closer to 2,000 career points

Paige Bueckers hardly showed any signs of rust after missing two games with a sprained left knee.

“I’m feeling good,” Bueckers said after No. 6 UConn’s 71-45 rout of St. John’s on Wednesday night. “I’m just glad to be back out there. Obviously first game back from anything you just want to get your feet wet. Get the feel of playing basketball again, the physicality of it, the pace of it but feeling good.”

Bueckers scored 12 points in 23 minutes. She was 1-of-4 in the first half when UConn held a 15-point lead and struggled to find the All-American guard shots in an uneven opening 20 minutes.

“Whenever you take any time off, you’re always going to have a bit of a hiccup when you go in there and the way the game started, she looked like she just picked up exactly where she left off,” Huskies coach Geno Auriemma said. “Then you start to see her drift and she doesn’t have the stamina to keep her foot on the gas like she normally would. So she spent a part of the first half just wandering and we couldn’t get her enough shots.”

After UConn briefly let the lead slip to 11 early in the third quarter, Bueckers hit three mid-range jumpers in a span of about three-and-a-half minutes to push the lead to 48-27 and ensure herself of a seat on the bench to watch the fourth.

“We changed up a couple of things and then all of sudden bang, bang, bang,” Auriemma said. “So I never doubt what Paige can do to impact the game because I’ve seen it so many times but I also know she’s not a robot where you just put her in, push the button and anything happens automatically.”

Bueckers returned after sitting out wins over Xavier and Georgetown and heads into Sunday’s game against Seton Hall six shy of becoming UConn’s 12th 2,000-point scorer. Bueckers is on the verge of the milestone through 101 fewer games and would surpass Maya Moore as the fastest to reach 2,000 points for the Huskies.

Bueckers was injured in the Huskies’ 83-52 win over Villanova on Jan. 5 after Wildcats’ freshman guard Jasmine Bascoe landed on her left leg as she dove for a loose ball. Bueckers limped off the court with 1:17 left in the third quarter and did not return.

Bueckers was the national player of the year as a freshman but injuries limited her to just 17 games over the next two seasons. She had started the past 54 games over the past two seasons before her brief absence.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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