Paige Bueckers, the 2021 national player of the year who tore her ACL in August 2022, returned to action Wednesday, helping No. 2 UConn start its season with a 102-58 win over Dayton at the XL Center.
In her first game in 584 days, Bueckers finished with 8 points on 3-for-9 shooting with 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal in 21 minutes before sitting the entire fourth quarter.
“In my opinion it was a bad game for me,” Bueckers said, “but I’m grateful to have a bad game right now.”
“The game doesn’t all of a sudden leave you when you haven’t played, but it also doesn’t automatically come back that fast, either,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma added. “Given that it was the first game, I thought she was what I thought she would be, and she’ll be better on Sunday and she’ll be better next Thursday.”
“She wants to feel what it feels like to get hit, so she put herself in those situations a lot today,” Auriemma said.
Bueckers scored 6 of her 8 points in the first quarter, when she played nine of her 21 minutes. She saw the court for only 11 minutes in UConn’s exhibition game Saturday.
Auriemma thought Bueckers was so anxious to play and “so far ahead of herself … [wanting to] get the whole year back on each possession” that she was trying so hard to do everything.