What look like in the beginning a potential blow out, turned into an edge of your seat nail biting game. A classic top 10 matchup before Thanksgiving. What a performance by both teams. For those who aren’t into women’s sports for what apparent reason I don’t know, you missed a treat. It was in the words of commentator Kenny Smith, “Stephfordless” that he says about NBA star Steph Curry when he’s raining three’s. So its only fitting to give these ladies their just due.
Both teams prior to the game were undefeated. So you knew from the jump that the stakes were high. Especially since Michigan just beat Notre Dame by 39 points. You felt UConn was going to be in a dog fight. However, it didn’t start off that way. Michigan found themselves down 22 to 5 in the first quarter and by half time they were down by 18 points. At this juncture this seemed like the typical UConn put them away basketball and that the game was going to be out of reach.
But hold on, midway through the third quarter, Michigan started making their run led by point guard Syla Swords. This sophomore got hot at the right time and draining threes helped march her team back to a 49-45 score heading into the fourth. UConn had went on a serious drought to help Michigan outscore them 18 to 4. Fudd finally drained a 3 and then went on a personal 9-0 run to get UConn back in double-digit lead. UConn had gained some breathing room.
Michigan started rallying back to make it a 68-66, a 3 pointer from Swords with 22.2. seconds left. The Wolverines would foul Fudd and she calmly hit two free throws to put them up by 2. Swords once again hit a deep 3 pointer with 12 seconds left to make it 70-69.
Fudd hits two more free throws with just 8 seconds left and Michigan was not able to get another shot off. Syla Swords had 29 points in the lose. Meanwhile, Azzi Fudd dropped 31 points and was named MVP.
Expressing my opinion
Chief Editor