Paige Bueckers scores 32, leads UConn to another Sweet 16 - ESPN

STORRS, Conn. — A year ago this week, Paige Bueckers went to her car and got emotional after her UConn Huskies defeated the Baylor Bears in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Bueckers, at the time out for the season with a torn ACL, wanted nothing more than to play in those sorts of high-stakes games, with electric crowds.

She «prayed so hard a year ago today,» Bueckers said Monday, «to be in my shoes where I'm at right now.»

Now playing in her first NCAA tournament in over 700 days, Bueckers added to her legend Monday by delivering 32 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and a block to lift the third-seeded Huskies over 6-seed Syracuse 72-64 in a competitive second-round matchup in front of a sold-out Gampel Pavilion crowd.

With the win, UConn extended its NCAA tournament-record streak of consecutive Sweet 16 appearances to 30.

After scoring 28 points in the Huskies' first-round win over Jackson State, Bueckers now has 60 points to start the NCAA tournament, the most for a UConn player through the first two games since Kerry Bascom's 62 in 1991. Bueckers is also the first Division I player in the past 25 years with at least 60 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists through the first two games of the tournament.

Her 32 points Monday — achieved largely by dissecting the Orange's zone and making them pay as she found openings inside the paint — are an NCAA tournament career-best.

«Paige was amazing her freshman year… (now) she's way better,» Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. «I've known Geno since I was a freshman at Syracuse University. Paige is one of the top three that ever came through those doors.»

The redshirt junior scored her final basket of the game with 1:32 to play, helping ward off a furious