Sarah Strong scored 25 points – 20 of them in the second half – to lead the No. 4 UConn Huskies to an 87-55 win over the No. 17 Ohio State Buckeyes on Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio.

Strong followed her career-high 39-point performance in a win against then-No. 10 Iowa with a 9-of-12 shooting night. She tied her career high with seven 3-pointers and added nine rebounds and five assists. She only missed one attempt from long distance.

Just as she did in the loss to No. 5 Michigan in the second game of the season, Strong got into foul trouble in the first half. This time, she came out of the locker room with a vengeance and showed why she is the reigning National Player of the Year.

Coach Geno Auriemma, in his 42nd season, clearly had a beef with the way his team played in the first half. His facial expressions and body language made it obvious. The Huskies took a 38-35 lead into halftime, but the lead should have touched double figures.

Strong, again, was saddled with two early fouls, and she played only eight minutes in the first half. She scored the final two of her five first-half points on a layup with 3:21 to go in the first quarter to give the Huskies a 21-8 lead.

From there, with Strong on the bench, the Ohio State defense intensified. The Buckeyes forced five turnovers in the second quarter and pulled down 14 rebounds – seven at each hoop. Ohio State finished the half on a 27-17 run to narrow the margin to three points helped by the defense forcing 10 UConn turnovers over the first 20 minutes.

Strong, for one. A tongue-lashing from Auriemma, no doubt. And the UConn (3-1) defense stepped up, holding Ohio State (3-1) to 11 points in the third quarter and nine in the fourth.

That’s a 20-point half for the Buckeyes – exactly what Strong scored in her 18 minutes of play in the final 20 minutes.

The Buckeyes scored 49 in the second half, resulting in the 32-point win.

After the 77-66 loss to Michigan, we called on the sharpshooting guards to step up, especially with Strong off the court. Against the Wolverines, the trio of Ashlynn Shade, Allie Ziebell and Kayleigh Heckel finished 2-of-13 shooting with six points.

The story was vastly different against Ohio State.

Shade scored 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, 3 of 5 from long distance.

Ziebell had eight points on 3-of-8 shooting – two of them from 3-point range. And Heckel added six, making 3 of 5 shot attempts.

That’s a total of 29 points, a value contribution from three players who will be very valuable as the Huskies pursue the program’s 13th national championship.

As a team, the Huskies were 14-of-27 (51.9%) shooting from 3-point range.