OMAHA, Neb. -- UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma was back on the sideline Wednesday night after missing the Huskies' past two games due to illness.
What No. 8 UConn showed in a 72-47 victory over No. 21 Creighton was like a tonic to him.
"That was pretty amazing," he said. "Not only defensively, but just our effort was really great."
Auriemma felt ill before the Huskies' win against Florida State in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Dec. 18, and missed that game and their victory over Seton Hall three days later. Longtime associate head coach Chris Dailey filled in in his place.
Auriemma said Tuesday in a video call that he was feeling better and in bright spirits after Wednesday's win.
"I don't watch the games when I'm not here -- until I know what the score is afterwards," Auriemma said with a grin. "But it feels good to be around this group. They have so much energy that they play with all the time. They're infuriating sometimes with some of the things they do, but they never stop. They just keep playing, so it's really neat to be around it."
UConn was the more energetic team from the tip, despite the fact the Huskies were down to seven available players. Guard Azzi Fudd has been out since Dec. 4 due to a right knee injury suffered in a loss at Notre Dame. Forwards Aubrey Griffin (illness) and Amari DeBerry (travel delays) were out Wednesday, too.
Yet, the Huskies' inside duo of Aaliyah Edwards and Dorka Juhász was spectacular. UConn outrebounded Creighton 59-27, led by 20 from Edwards, who also had a team-high 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting. She became the first Huskies player since superstar Maya Moore in 2010 to reach the 20-rebound mark. Edwards also now has four consecutive games with 20 points on at least 60% shooting, the second-longest streak by a UConn player in the past 20 seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information. (Napheesa Collier had six such games in 2019).
Juhász, who missed seven games with a broken thumb before returning against Florida State 10 days ago, had 22 points and 18 rebounds.
"I thought we just had a great connection," Edwards said. "We just played off the height advantages. It was clicking."
So well, in fact, that Creighton coach Jim Flanery noted: "We didn't belong on the same court as UConn tonight."
With a sellout crowd on hand at D.J. Sokol Arena, the Bluejays hoped for their first victory over UConn. Creighton, which made a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament last season as a No. 10 seed, already had played four ranked teams before the Huskies. The Bluejays beat South Dakota State and Villanova, then lost to Arkansas and Stanford in the two games immediately preceding Wednesday. But they were competitive in those losses, falling by eight points to Arkansas and 13 to Stanford.
The Huskies, though, got off to a 9-0 lead and never really looked back. Creighton, which specializes in 3-point shooting, was 3 of 28 from behind the arc.
Auriemma was asked about the 10-2 Huskies' resilience, dating to last season when guard Paige Bueckers was out a significant stretch and the fact that they don't have her at all this season due to injury.
"You wonder, 'At what point are these kids going to break?'" Auriemma said. "So it's on us to manage it really well. Our practices are different than they've ever been at UConn. You have to stay at practice long enough to get done what you have to get done. But you can't go up and down as much when you're trying to limit how much time they're on their feet.
"But right now, I think being as prepared as we want to be is kind of secondary to staying healthy. We've got pretty tough kids. They don't look it, a lot of them, but we've got a bunch of tough kids."