UNCASVILLE — For the 11th time in program history, the UConn women’s basketball team punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a perfect record after routing Villanova 90-51 in the Big East Championship game.
The No. 1 Huskies (34-0) claimed their 13th consecutive conference tournament title with the win Monday night at Mohegan Sun Arena, sweeping the Big East regular season and tournament championships for the sixth year in a row since rejoining the conference in 2020-21. UConn also set a record for the longest Big East winning streak in conference history with its 70th straight victory.
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Sophomore phenom Sarah Strong lived up to her title of Big East Player of the Year, powering the Huskies with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting plus eight rebounds, two steals and a block in just 22 minutes on the court. Strong was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament after the Huskies received their trophy and got her own personal confetti shower from the fistfuls her teammates collected off the court.
“She keeps doing things that we just look at and say, ‘That’s not normal,’” coach Geno Auriemma said postgame. “And she still, I think, plays to make her teammates better. That’s the greatest compliment that I think you can give to any player, that the thing they value the most is making their teammates better.”
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It was another spectacular night from UConn’s trio of stars, who delivered consistently across all three games in the tournament. Redshirt senior Azzi Fudd scored a team-high 19 points on top of three steals, and junior point guard KK Arnold led the Huskies with seven assists plus 10 points shooting 4-for-5 from the field on the heels of her season-high 18 points in the semifinals.
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Big East Freshman of the Year Blanca Quinonez also had her best game of the tournament with 13 points and three steals off the bench.
Arnold set the tone immediately for the Huskies, scoring her first points off a steal that she took for a layup after Strong opened the game on a 3-pointer. The junior point guard logged three steals in the first quarter alone, and she smothered Villanova star Jasmine Bascoe after the sophomore dominated the last time the teams met in the regular season. Arnold kept Bascoe to two points on a single made field goal before halftime and forced three turnovers against her.
“It’s very important to me to set the tone for my teammates,” Arnold said. “I’m playing for them, so to just to go out there to play with that same energy knowing that they feed off of it means a lot. This year, each and every game I’ve learned from myself. I’ve learned from my teammates and learned how to get better each and every day, each and every second in practice and translating it into the game.”
Villanova started 1-for-10 from the field and hit just three shots in the entire first quarter, all of which came from beyond the arc. The Huskies seemed determined to keep Bascoe quiet, bringing double teams to the Villanova point guard that left teammates open on the perimeter, and the gamble played off with the Wildcats shooting just 4-for-20 on 3-pointers in the first half.
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The Wildcats began applying more defensive pressure in the second quarter, forcing two turnovers against UConn through the first 90 seconds after the Huskies gave up two in the entire opening quarter. But Strong and Quinonez found a rhythm and refused to let Villanova make a dent in the lead. The duo combined for 17 of the Huskies’ 26 second-quarter points shooting a combined 6-for-8 from the field, and Strong had 17 points at halftime to lead the team. Quinonez, Fudd and Arnold also had three steals apiece in the first half.
Monday marked a crucial turnaround for Quinonez after she went 1-for-9 from the field in UConn’s semifinal against Creighton, which Auriemma attributed to an emotionally-charged weekend for the freshman. Quinonez’s parents flew in from Ecuador for the tournament to see her play in person for the first time since 2024, and they watched from the stands beaming with pride as their daughter received her Big East Championship trophy after the game.
“She gets so emotional and she wants to do so well for them and wants them to be so proud of her,” Auriemma said. “Yesterday she tried so hard, she missed seven layups. It was just crazy. Today I thought she look a little more relaxed … She’s kind of an X-factor for us going into the (NCAA) tournament, for sure.”
Fudd got hot in the third quarter, shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from the field with a pair of made 3-pointers after she was 1-for-5 from beyond the arc at halftime. Fudd’s second 3-pointer, a wide-open look off a long assist from Arnold in transition, broke open a 31-point lead with more than eight minutes left in the third.
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Arnold played just five minutes in the third, and it showed with UConn’s defense giving up 10 points to Bascoe in the quarter. But though the sophomore finished with 14, it wasn’t enough to compensate for the Wildcats’ dismal shooting performance. UConn held Villanova to 27.3% from the field and 7-for-37 on 3-pointers, also forcing 15 turnovers.
UConn went on a 10-0 run early in the fourth quarter with all four of its double-digit scorers on the bench, and the Huskies’ student section was chanting “start the buses” with nearly six minutes remaining on the clock. The Huskies outscored Villanova 19-9 in the final quarter to seal the 39-point win.
“It’s definitely not easy,” Fudd said. “I think it’s just that preparation that we put into it, what the coaches put us through to prepare us for every single scenario we might see. I feel like we’re so focused on each game that now we can take a moment, take a day to appreciate this win and appreciate all those unseen moments, the hard work that we put in to make this possible and make it look easy when it’s not.”
