SPOKANE, Wash. — UConn coach Geno Auriemma usually likes to give his star player, Paige Bueckers, a hard time.

But Auriemma couldn’t help from singing Bueckers’ praises after her 40-point masterpiece Saturday powered the Huskies to an 82-59 rout of Oklahoma in the Sweet 16.

“Paige was spectacular,” Auriemma said in his opening postgame statement. “That was as good a game as I’ve seen her play the whole time she’s been here at the most important time. When you’re a senior and you’ve been around as long as she has, this is what you’re here to do, this is why you came here.”

Only 90 minutes earlier, Connecticut headed to the locker room at halftime in an unfamiliar position.

For only the third time this season, the Huskies were trailing. In each of the previous two instances, Connecticut lost.

The gravity of what being down four points to Oklahoma after a disjointed first half could mean started to settle in senior Bueckers’ mind.

“It leaves you to think of, if you don’t turn around, what that would look like,” Bueckers said.

Bueckers started by taking accountability for her own mishaps. She had made several defensive mistakes and went scoreless in the second quarter.

But as Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk was getting her team fired up for the final 20 minutes just down the hall, Bueckers was reiterating to her teammates what was at stake.

“Come on,” she pleaded. “We got to pick it up.”

Bueckers didn’t yell or scream, but everyone within earshot of her message heard the urgency in her voice.

Bueckers then showed her team what that tenacity looked like.

Bueckers drilled a second-chance 3-pointer. Then, on the other end, she blocked Reyna Scott before she made a midrange jumper to put the Huskies within one of Oklahoma.

From then on, it was mainly the Bueckers show.

Bueckers scored 29 points in the second half, including 19 in the fourth quarter alone. It came just days after she dropped 34 points in a second-round win against South Dakota State.

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None of Bueckers’ teammates are surprised when she gets on shooting heaters like she did Saturday. But they do feed off the confidence she plays with and are now headed to another Elite Elite.

“It’s super incredible to play with someone who has such a high motor, and she literally lives for these moments,” Azzi Fudd said. “Paige was made for these big games, these tough games, these close games, tough matchups, all of it. So we all know that when we have a close game, she’s going to go off like that. Still, just to be a part of it, it’s so much fun and it definitely raises your level of play as well.”

Bueckers’ 40 points are a new career high. She also set UConn’s NCAA Tournament single-game scoring record.

Asked if Bueckers is shifting into another gear that hasn’t been seen in this year’s tournament, Auriemma said, “I hope so.”

“There’s really nothing to save it for now, right?” Auriemma said. “So I think Paige has had enough adversity and letdowns during her time at UConn that there’s only one thing left to do and that’s just play. And if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”

Even as the main character, Bueckers was lauding her teammates. Sarah Strong, Jana El Alfy and Ice Brady for their screen-setting. Kaitlyn Chen for her playmaking and scrappy defense. Ashlynn Shade for her timely buckets.

Auriemma is well aware of the narrative that has followed Bueckers into this postseason. While she’s already cemented herself among the all-time great Huskies, there’s one thing that has eluded her over the past five years: A national championship.

“People put so much emphasis on Paige winning a national championship,” Auriemma said. “Paige isn’t going to win a national championship. Paige is going to help UConn win a national championship. That’s the plan, that’s the goal.”

There’s only one way to follow up this performance, and that’s cutting down the nets.

UConn is one win away from doing that and will play Monday for a chance at a Final Four berth.

But Bueckers is trying to stay as present as possible.

“I just take it one game at a time, one practice at a time. Each game calls for something different,” Bueckers said. “It’s just whatever the game calls for so whatever that is on any given night, you just want to give it your all and leave nothing to chance.”