In Paige Bueckers’ farewell to Gampel Pavilion, KK Arnold gives UConn women glimpse into the future

STORRS — Perhaps the most important play of the UConn women’s basketball team’s first-quarter comeback against South Dakota State on Monday night resulted in KK Arnold lying flat on her back.

The No. 2 seed Huskies had an ugly start to their second-round NCAA Tournament matchup with the No. 10 seed Jackrabbits, going 0-for-7 over the opening minutes of the game. But the energy palpably shifted as soon as Arnold came in off the bench, and the sold-out crowd at Gampel Pavilion reached a fever pitch when the sophomore planted herself in front of South Dakota State’s Madison Mathiowetz and was sent flying as the opposing guard collided with her chest.

Arnold, still laid out on the court, flexed with a scream of joy as the official signaled a charge against the Jackrabbits, and superstar Paige Bueckers smiled from ear-to-ear as she bounded over to help pick Arnold up.

The turnover was South Dakota State’s fourth in four minutes to end the first quarter, and after Arnold brought the ball back down to the offensive half, Bueckers immediately capitalized with a driving layup that gave the Huskies their first lead of the game. The point guard duo seemed to escalate each other’s energy, each celebrating more and more emphatically with every successive play the other made.

“I think (it’s) just our competitive energy and leading by example,” Arnold said. “I feel like I led by example on the defensive end tonight when everybody needed to pick it up energy-wise, and Paige is a leader in all aspects, so we just go from there and build on that competitive energy.”

Arnold first checked into the game against South Dakota State after UConn fell behind 10-4, and it took her all of 20 seconds to record her first steal. She logged a second minutes later that resulted in the first field goal of the game for Bueckers — the one that started her solo 10-0 run and a streak of eight consecutive made shots that gave the Huskies a lead they maintained for the rest of the game.

Bueckers was the headliner of UConn’s 91-57 rout of the Jackrabbits with her career-high 34 points shooting 66.7% from the field, but though Arnold didn’t lead the team in any statistical category, she was undeniably the next most important player on the floor. The sophomore finished with six points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block in just 19 minutes, and she didn’t give up a single turnover.

“She’s way quicker than I am, way peskier than I am, so just for her to be able to come in and change a game completely from what it is and the way it started, she knows that and she knows how important she is to this team,” Bueckers said. “To have that piece, it’s huge. She just switched the defensive energy and turned it up a whole other notch and gets everybody around her to want to do the same. She’s a true game-changer.”

Though she is only in her second season with the Huskies, Arnold is one of the more experienced members of the roster after starting 33 games a freshman in 2023-24. Arnold’s role this year looks smaller on paper averaging eight fewer minutes coming off the bench, but the sophomore is beginning to master the art of becoming exactly what the Huskies need in a given moment. She shares some of the rare quality that Bueckers showed off on Monday, the ability to shift the energy of a game single-handedly and bring her teammates along with her.

“More so today than ever, your value to a team and a lot of times your value to yourself is how many points (you) score, and that’s not indicative of whether you played great or not,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “KK was probably, other than Paige, the most impactful player on the floor and it had nothing to do with scoring. In order to win at this level, it takes a lot of pieces that have to come together and without KK’s piece… it means as much as Paige’s piece.”

Bueckers’s leadership has anchored UConn this season, and the superstar’s presence looms too large for the Huskies to truly replace her when she leaves for the WNBA, but Arnold is at the perfect place in her development to help the team fill that void next year.

“I think she’s gotten more comfortable using her voice,” Bueckers said. “She’s more confident in what she’s saying as her knowledge has grown and her experience has grown, and she’s honestly one of our more experienced players as a sophomore, so her just continuing to find that and lead by example as well on top of learning how to use her voice, she does a great job of that.”

Even though they’ve officially played their last game together in Storrs, life without Bueckers still feels a long way away for Arnold. At least for now, she’s trying to keep the the emotions of her final moments with the seniors at arm’s length.

“I don’t want to think about it too much,” Arnold said, grinning through the slight waver in her voice. “I’ll think about that later.”

UConn women reach 31st straight Sweet 16 with 91-57 win over South Dakota State in NCAA Tournament

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