UConn women’s basketball, without Christyn Williams, throttled by surging Oregon, 72-59

Even through all the UConn women’s basketball team’s injuries this season to Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, Aubrey Griffin and Nika Mühl, the Huskies had managed to put themselves in a position to win every game, even the ones they ultimately lost.

But when forced to play Monday without senior guard Christyn Williams, who was out due to COVID-19 protocols, it was one absence too many.

No. 9 UConn was demolished through-and-through, falling 72-59 and trailing by at least 15 most of the second half. For the first time since the 2003-04 season, the Huskies have lost multiple games to unranked teams. They’ve also now lost four games prior to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012-13.

The team found out Sunday that Williams would not be available. Coach Geno Auriemma said they’ll know more when they get back to Connecticut how long she’ll be out: “could be five days, could be 10 days.” The Huskies play Friday against Seton Hall and Sunday at St. John’s.

“That’s not an excuse for us,” senior Olivia Nelson-Ododa said. “Everybody else in the country is dealing with this too. This is kind of unfortunate timing but again, it’s no excuse. We just have to get tougher mentally to be able to deal with things like this.”

Williams had played some of her best basketball of the season in the week leading up to Monday’s game. It’s impossible to know whether her presence would have changed the ultimate result, but with the Huskies down yet another shooter and playmaker, Oregon took advantage, playing zone and prompting the Huskies to beat them by making outside shots.

UConn was not up to the task, making just six of its 33 attempts that weren’t layups and going 3 for 18 from the 3-point arc. When they weren’t missing shots, they struggled to take care of the ball, committing 19 turnovers that Oregon turned into 21 points.

“We can’t shoot. And when you’re playing a team that’s going to play 40 minutes of zone, you’ve got to make outside shots,” Auriemma said. “I just want them to make some outside shots, Christ almighty... it’s like, somebody just threw them a hand grenade and they can’t wait to throw it back into the trenches.”

Auriemma called out his team’s poor guard play and attributed it to “[crappy] coaching, by far the worst it’s ever been.” Mühl, who played the entire game after being on a minutes restriction since her return from a foot injury, and redshirt senior Evina Westbrook combined for nearly two times more turnovers (seven) than made field goals, shooting 4-17 from the field. Freshman Caroline Ducharme finished with a team-high 22 points but struggled with her efficiency, taking 21 shots, and committing five turnovers.

“Games are won or lost by your guards,” Auriemma said. “And last year, we had the best guard in the country [Bueckers], and it was easy to win games. This year, we don’t and it’s hard to win games. Sometimes basketball is not that complicated.”

The sole bright spot was that, after playing poorly against the Ducks two years ago, Nelson-Ododa had a confidence-instilling outing with 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists — a “night and day” difference from Feb. 2020 to Auriemma.

“We got the ball inside a bunch and I thought Liv played a great game. I really did,” Auriemma said. “But we needed more help.”

The offensive issues eventually carried over onto the defensive end. The Ducks, who went deep into their bench and played 11, shot 46% from the field, with sophomore Te-Hina Paopao leading the Ducks with 22 points and eight rebounds, followed by Sedona Prince with 14 points.

“Defensively, I think we did a pretty decent job but once we stopped scoring, I think we got demoralized a little bit that we couldn’t get a shot to drop and now we’ve got to go back on defense,” Auriemma said.

The Ducks may be unranked, but they played like the squad most expected to see before a slew of injuries to their top players hampered them early on. Now healthy, they looked the part of one of the best teams in the country after taking down two top-10 squads, Arizona and UConn, in three days.

UConn clicked early, scoring the first 10 points of the game, before the Ducks settled in on both ends, scoring 15 of the next 19 points to close the frame and earn their first lead of the day.

The Huskies cooled off shooting-wise and struggled against Oregon’s defense, but they did enough to contain a typically high-powered Ducks offense and dominated the defensive glass.

That changed in the second quarter, when UConn couldn’t keep up on either end. The Huskies turned the ball over nine times in the period and went 6 1/2 minutes without scoring, but also couldn’t slow Prince, who had 12 points in the frame. Nelson-Ododa helped keep UConn afloat with 10 first-half points, and Ducharme had 11, but all other scorers combined for three.

“I think [Oregon’s zone] just slowed us down,” Nelson-Ododa said. “Our offense is usually kind of fast-paced and up and down. And I think it just kind of took that out of it and forced us to make outside shots. Today things weren’t clicking. But moving forward with games like this, you can’t just be stuck when things aren’t clicking. We’ve just got to find a way to dig ourselves out.”

The Huskies showed some life on offense to start the second half, cutting the deficit to 10, but they saw that slip away after more miscues on both ends, including more five more turnovers in the period. Auriemma was forced to call a timeout after three straight Oregon baskets increased the deficit to 17. The Ducks kept rolling and went into the fourth ahead 62-41, leading most of the rest of the way by at least 20 before UConn scored the game’s final seven points to cut the deficit to 13 by the buzzer.

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com.