“We’ve tried the sage burning. We’ve tried a lot of holy water. We’ve tried a lot of things and none of them have really seemed to work,” associate head coach Chris Dailey said Thursday night after the team suffered yet another injury.
The bad injury luck — or curse, if you want to call it that — continues to tighten its grip on the Huskies.
Forward Aaliyah Edwards, who has been emerging as the team’s best player, suffered a right foot injury during the first half of UConn’s 73-37 blowout win at Xavier on Thursday after tumbling over empty chairs along the sideline while chasing down a loose ball. As of noon on Friday, UConn has yet to release details of the injury, but it prevented her from playing the entire second half against Xavier.
With Edwards’s status up in the air along with the return timelines of both Caroline Ducharme (concussion) and Azzi Fudd (knee) still to be determined, the Huskies could very likely have just seven available players for the third time this season when they host DePaul on Sunday.
“It’s inconceivable what this team has been through,” former Husky great Kara Wolters said during the SNY broadcast of Thursday’s game.
The Huskies started this week on a low. Ducharme would be out for at least two games after suffering a concussion during Monday’s practice.
However, the team’s spirits went up the next day when redshirt junior Aubrey Griffin returned to the lineup after sitting out two games due to COVID-19.
As if no time had passed, Griffin immediately jumped back into playing like her normal self on Tuesday at Butler.
She didn’t skip a beat using her fast footwork to weave in and out of defenders and sprint after loose balls. Griffin, who’s started 11 games this year, finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals in 34 minutes against Butler.
On Thursday, she was just as dominant.
UConn and Xavier were a combined 2 of 19 from the floor in the first five minutes in Cincinnati. It was Griffin that started the Huskies’ surge immediately following the media timeout in the first quarter.