Portland, Ore. — UConn coach Geno Auriemma was on the dais following the Huskies’ somewhat precarious 53-45 victory over Duke in Saturday night’s Sweet 16, rubbing his temples as he sometimes does.

It was his turn to make an opening statement.

“I don’t know that I have one,” Auriemma said.

Geno. Speechless.

Third-seeded UConn, knocked out of the NCAA tournament in last year’s Sweet 16 in Seattle, conquered that same stumbling block in this year’s tournament — with a few moments of deja vu mixed in late — holding off No. 7 Duke before 12,103 fans at the Moda Center.

That sends the Huskies (32-5) on to Monday night’s Elite Eight game against Southern California, scheduled for 9 p.m. (ESPN), after the Trojans edged No. 5 Baylor 74-70 behind 30 points from freshman JuJu Watkins.

Auriemma later cited the Huskies’ diminished roster — they have six players out for the season with injuries, with the coach using three starters for all 40 minutes against Duke — for the excitement at the finish.

Duke (22-12), attempting its second straight upset of the tournament, carved what was formerly a 20-point UConn lead to five in the waning moments.

“The fatigue factor became a big issue,” said Auriemma, who used Paige Bueckers, Nika Muhl and KK Arnold for 40 minutes each, “because it forced us to change our game plan.

“We got up 20 because we just pushed it, pushed it, pushed it. And then I felt like, ‘OK, we need a breather here or we’re not going to be able to finish the game.’ And I think by doing that, we got a little bit, you know, kind of took a deep breath.”

Added Auriemma, to laughter in the room: “We were exercising and then we decided to have a cigarette and then we didn’t feel like exercising anymore. So it’s hard for us to get back into the flow of things. But I knew scoring was going to be very, very difficult, very difficult on both ends.”

Bueckers had 24 points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots for the Huskies.

Aaliyah Edwards added 12 points and seven rebounds, including the 1,000th rebound of her career with her first of the night, and Arnold, the freshman, finished with 12 points and a team-high five steals. Muhl contributed with eight assists, six rebounds and four steals.

UConn lost to Ohio State in last season’s Sweet 16, falling 73-61 after committing 25 turnovers, with Bueckers missing the season due to injury.

Playing against Duke in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in program history, the Huskies led 23-13 at the end of the first half Saturday, getting more defense than offense.

The Huskies had eight steals in the half, four by Arnold, forcing 13 Duke turnovers. The Blue Devils went more than seven minutes without scoring from the 2:08 mark of the first quarter to 4:46 of the second when Oluchi Okananwa hit a jump shot to pull them within 15-8.

UConn took a 23-10 lead with 42 seconds left in the half when Bueckers got a defensive rebound and sprinted the length of the floor, hitting Arnold for a layup. Duke made the last shot of the half, however, a 3-pointer by Ashlon Jackson.

Edwards had 10 points in the half, although she picked up her third foul with 2:40 to play and took a seat on the bench in favor of freshman Ice Brady, and Bueckers nine. Muhl added four assists to Arnold’s four steals.

Bueckers heated up in the third, hitting two 3-pointers within a 36-second span, and Arnold continued to be a threat on defense as she executed a steal and a layup in the midst of a 13-2 UConn run to give the Huskies a 33-17 lead.

Edwards picked up her fourth foul at the 4:18 mark of the third, with Brady once again coming on in relief, but Bueckers followed that with a picture-perfect rainbow on an inbounds play from Muhl and the Huskies stretched the advantage to 20 for the first time at 39-19.

That was the all-out sprint Auriemma talked about, with the Huskies still leading 44-27 after a Bueckers basket to lead off the fourth quarter.

Duke outscored UConn 18-11 in the fourth quarter, however, pulling within 48-43 on a 3-pointer by Okananwa.

But the Huskies broke up a 10-0 Duke run on a jump shot by Edwards to push the lead back to seven at 50-43 with 1:06 to play.

“Coach drew up a play, told me to get a bucket and that’s what I did,” said Edwards, the senior forward, who now has 1,820 points and 1,006 rebounds in her UConn career. “We all made plays and impacted in different ways. ... It was a team effort. I think that we could have made some better decisions. But we survived and we advance.”

“Yeah, I think the game was very physical on both ends of the floor,” Bueckers said. “The pace was fast, both sides, trying to push it. So you feel it, but at this point of the season, you’ve got to be mentally tougher.”

Okananwa had 15 points and Kennedy Brown 10 rebounds for Duke, which finished with 23 turnovers. The Blue Devils upset the No. 2 seed, Ohio State, in the second round of the tournament (75-63) and put their deliberate defense to work again against UConn.

“It wasn’t our night tonight,” Duke coach Kara Lawson said. “I thought UConn did a great job of executing, defensively, what they wanted to do. We struggled to score the ball all night.

“I thought defensively we played well enough to win; that’s, obviously, a high-powered offense. We were out of sorts and out of rhythm on the offensive end and just weren't able to, until late, get enough points on the board.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com