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UConn notebook: Sweet repeat for Lopez Sénéchal

carl adamec, journal inquirer, manchester, conn.
·4 min read
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Mar. 7—UNCASVILLE — Lou Lopez Sénéchal got to add to her wardrobe Monday night with her new Big East tournament championship t-shirt to go with the one she got last year at Fairfield.

Lopez Sénéchal scored 14 points as the UConn women's basketball team defeated Villanova 67-56 in the Big East final at Mohegan Sun Arena.

"It feels special," Lopez Sénéchal said. "Winning one conference championship last year and another conference this year, a year apart it feels really special doing it with this group of girls here.

"Just right from the beginning we had a great chemistry and they just included me really well on the team. With all the hard work that we had and all the struggles and the challenges that we've been through during the whole year, it's just really rewarding."

Lopez Sénéchal, who was the Most Outstanding Player of the 2022 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament in guiding the Stags to the title and an NCAA tournament bid, joined UConn teammates Aaliyah Edwards (MOP) and Dorka Juhász on the Big East all-tournament team.

In wins over Georgetown, Marquette, and Villanova, the guard from Grenoble, France averaged 14.0 points — scoring 14 in each game — and shot 53.3 percent from the floor, 40.0 percent from 3-point land, and 75.0 percent from the foul line.

The Huskies (29-5) won their three tournament games by an average of 23.3 points after concluding the regular season with eight straight single-figure games.

Lopez Sénéchal also averaged 14.0 points in the three wins this season over Villanova.

She becomes the third player to win a Big East tournament title at UConn after winning a conference tournament championship at another school. The others are Christine Rigby (1998 West Coast Conference at Santa Clark, 1999-2001 Big East at UConn), and Brittany Hunter (2004 ACC at Duke, 2005-06, 2008 Big East at UConn).

"It feels special to do it with my teammates and the whole coaching staff," Lopez Sénéchal said. "For my first and only year here, and I'm just really happy"

Griffin sidelined

One of the unsung heroes of UConn's season has been Aubrey Griffin's back surgeon. The redshirt junior forward — who had surgery to repair a disk in her back in January 2022 and sat out the year — has had a remarkable bounce-back season with no noticeable issues.

But that changed Monday night as she left the game 52 seconds into the third quarter with what coach Geno Auriemma said were back spasms. She did not return.

"Something happened in the first half and her back started to spasm up," Auriemma said. "So she went in the locker room at halftime and tried to get some work done on it.

"I thought, 'I don't want her sitting around and it gets worse. So let's let her get out there and loosen up.' But after watching her go up and down the floor twice, I realized she wasn't going to be able to go. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often."

Griffin played 12 minutes and did not score. On the defensive end she blanked Villanova 3-point specialist Maddie Burke. The only trey Burke hit in eight tries came late in the third quarter with the Wildcats trailing by 25.

The Ossining, New York native was named honorable mention all-Big East will take career-best averages of 12.1 points and 6.8 rebounds into the NCAA tournament.

Polling place

UConn moved up two spots to No. 7 in the Associated Press poll released Monday. The Huskies had 543 points, four behind sixth-ranked Maryland (25-6).

Unbeaten SEC tournament champion South Carolina (32-0) remained the unanimous No. 1 team in the land. Big Ten tournament champion Iowa (26-6) moved up five spots to second while Big Ten regular-season champion Indiana (27-3) dropped one spot to No. 3 after blowing a 24-point lead in a tournament semifinal loss to Ohio State. ACC tournament champion Virginia Tech (27-4) moved up four places to No. 4. Pac-12 regular-season co-champion Stanford (28-5) moved up a spot to No. 5 even though the Cardinal lost in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals to UCLA.

Villanova earned its highest ranking at No. 10, which made the Big East final a Top-10 matchup for the first time since UConn and Notre Dame played in 2013.

Husky bites

Azzi Fudd played 32 minutes and, after struggling in the first half, finished with 11 points on 4-for-12 shooting ... Nika Mühl had eight assists to bring her single-season school record total to 259 ... UConn is 37-1 at Mohegan Sun Arena, 30-0 in conference tournament action. The only loss was to Louisville in December 2021.

For coverage of all sports in the JI's 18-town coverage area, plus updates on the UConn women's basketball team and head coach Geno Auriemma, follow Carl Adamec on Twitter: @CarlAdamec, Facebook: Carl Adamec, and Instagram: @CarlAdamec.