BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2021

Christyn Williams

Paige Bueckers

UConn Huskies

Mohegan Sun Arena

Postgame Media Conference

UConn 84, Villanova 39

THE MODERATOR: We have Christyn Williams and Paige Bueckers from UConn. Christyn had 21 points to lead all players.

Q. You said a few times this year that you keep on looking to different parts of your game to evolve as a player. Do you feel like you're continuing to get better and better as an overall player rather than just a scorer?

CHRISTYN WILLIAMS: He's talking to me, right? Yeah, I mean, I've taken a lot more pride in my defense, and I think that has relieved some pressure off the offensive end. I am trying to become a more complete player consistently. I feel like I've grown a lot in different areas in my game.

Q. Christyn, just regarding your defense, how much of this improvement that you've had in the recent month is just stronger commitment to it? You obviously talked about having a sense of urgency with yourself being a junior. Is it just that? You're making more of a commitment? Or how would you explain the growth you've made defensively?

CHRISTYN WILLIAMS: I'd just say that's been my kind of focus going into the game rather than offense, and I feel like that's helped me, just being aggressive and attacking, whether it's defense or offense. They've been putting me on their best guards, so I've definitely tried to take advantage of that just to get better each game.

Q. This is another question about your defense, but did you kind of take pride when they gave you a player like Maddie Siegrist to defend? She dropped like 30 and 11 yesterday and is a great player in the conference. What makes her tough to defend, and what did you like about how you played her today?

CHRISTYN WILLIAMS: Yeah, she's a great player. She's a big guard. She tries to post you up, but she can shoot the three as well. We knew that coming in, and it was a team effort to stop her. She's a great player. She had 30 last night. So if we could shut her down, we could handle the other players as well. I felt like we did a great job as a team today stopping her.

Q. Geno was saying that he feels the team is just now kind of figuring things out, rounding into form, understanding what the coaches have been wanting all season. So where has that growth been, in your opinion, and do you feel the same way, and what has that done for the team's confidence?

PAIGE BUECKERS: Yeah, I think we're playing our best basketball right now. Ever since our loss against Arkansas, we try to find a positive out of it. I mean, we all hate losing, but I felt like it was a lesson more than anything. We really started picking up on the defensive end. We started really honing in on offense and all the little details. I think we learned a lot that game. We just try to keep learning each and every game, each and every practice.

I feel like we're making great momentum strides right now, playing our best basketball, really focusing on the scouting reports and what our game plan is and trying to stick to it each and every game. So, yeah, I would agree with him in that we're playing our best basketball right now.

Q. Was there one sort of aha moment where you guys did something and said, oh, that's what the coaches were talking about or that's what they mean?

PAIGE BUECKERS: I think it's just every day in practice there's a lot of those moments for us because we have a really smart coaching staff. So just sort of like listening to them and really trying to focus on the details and little things and clean up our mistakes. I think those happen every day in practice.

Q. Paige, congrats on the win. Team-high eight assists. I think overall the team had 18 assists. Can you just talk about, a lot of give-and-goes, it just seems that everybody knows each other, just as far as that unselfishness. Can you just talk about that?

PAIGE BUECKERS: Yeah, that's just like our team really. We don't care who scores, who gets assists, who gets all the credit. We're really selfless as a team, and in order for us to win, we have to have great ball movement. That always happens. When we're winning, we're getting a lot of assists. That's just been a really big key for us is getting the ball movement off, ball movement, screening, rolling, everything like that.

I think when we're playing together and as a team and we're all looking to get each other open and just be selfless, that's when we play our best basketball.

CHRISTYN WILLIAMS: I agree.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on the win, ladies. The Huskies will be back in action for the championship tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern.