When Lou Lopez Senechal joined the UConn women’s basketball team as a fifth-year senior, not long after graduating from Fairfield University, the Huskies had Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd in the backcourt, two former national high school players of the year.

It was before UConn announced Bueckers would miss the 2022-23 season with a knee injury, before Fudd, having forced herself into the conversation for national player of the year with her otherworldly level, was injured on Dec. 4.

That was before Lopez Senechal, the 6-foot-1 guard/forward from Grenoble, France, started averaging 31.3 minutes per game for UConn, the fifth-ranked team in the country.

“I mean, I definitely believed in myself and I believed I could still have an important role here, but that quick or that much of a role, I did not expect to happen that fast, I think,” Lopez Senechal said.

“I’m definitely happy with the situation I’m in right now, but for sure everything happened really fast and at first I was asking myself, you know, ‘Like, is this really happening?’ But it’s been great.”

Lopez Senechal is one of two players, along with junior Aaliyah Edwards, to start all 18 games for UConn (16-2 overall, 9-0 Big East) entering Saturday’s game against Butler at Gampel Pavilion (noon, SNY).

She has scored in double figures in all of them and in 26 straight games so far, dating back to her career at Fairfield.

Lopez Senechal is averaging 16.7 points per game, tied for the team lead with Edwards among UConn’s non-injured players — Fudd, at 17.9 points per game, remains out. Lopez Senechal is second in the nation in shooting 50% from 3-point range (47-for-94), hitting four 3-pointers in a game six times.

UConn has played several games this season with only the league minimum of seven active players and the team announced Friday that Fudd would spend the next two weeks unable to bear weight on her injured right knee.

Ayanna Patterson and Caroline Ducharme have been out with concussions, although Patterson will be a game-time decision Saturday, Auriemma told the media Friday.

“We can go to her at moments where we really have to have a bucket,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said of Lopez Senechal following her 22-point game against Marquette on New Year’s Eve. “Not having Azzi this whole time, it’s really been crucial.

“She’s a mature player. She’s a mature individual. She’s steady. She doesn’t always give you an amazing game but she never gives you a bad game either.”

Lopez Senechal made an NCAA tournament appearance last year at Fairfield, where she finished with 1,598 points and a degree in marketing. She was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year and the MAAC Tournament Most Valuable Player. Fairfield coach Joe Frager retired after the season.

“When I knew that there was going to be a fifth year (granted by the NCAA due to COVID), I had no idea what I was going to do,” Lopez Senechal said. “I think I was a junior still so I was not thinking about it too much. At first, I loved Fairfield, I’m good there, I didn’t see myself leaving, but you know, things happened.”

Frager left. UConn reached out.

Now, Lopez Senechal constantly expresses gratitude for her opportunity with the Huskies, even if on occasion it means playing 40 minutes per game, as she has twice.

“Here I am and I’m very grateful for it,” she said. “The best things happen when you expect it the least. A lot of things happened to me in the past year that I wasn’t expecting it. Those things always turn into good things and I hope it keeps being that way.

“I’ve been trying not to put too much pressure on myself, just going with the flow and seeing how things happen and it’s been working pretty well right now. I want to play professionally, try my best to play here in the WNBA. I’ll just see in a few months what happens.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com