UConn overwhelms Vermont women's basketball in NCAA Tournament

The University of Connecticut Huskies pressed, dominated the paint, ran in transition and shared the ball.

Too much UConn, too much of the time.

The second-seeded Huskies led wire to wire with an efficient and punishing effort, cruising past No. 15 Vermont for a 95-52 triumph in Saturday's opening round of the NCAA Tournament at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.

Power forward Aaliyah Edwards was nearly flawless, shooting 13 of 15 from the floor in a 28-point, 7-rebound, 5-assist, 4-steal outing, while frontcourt teammate Dorka Juhász produced a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds to go with six assists, three steals and three blocks to power the Huskies (30-5).

“Obviously, it didn't end the way we want, but that's a really talented UConn team,” Vermont coach Alisa Kresge said. ”But there's some really good things that we can take from this game and stuff that we're going to build off of as we continue to build our program.“

UConn dominant from opening tip

UConn shot 61.9% from the floor (39 of 63), owned the rebounding edge (43-19) and held the Catamounts to 33.3% field-goal shooting.

Caroline Ducharme (12 points, five boards) and Nika Mühl (nine points, 10 assists) also contributed to UConn's unselfish offense. The host Huskies assisted on 27 of their 39 made field goals, out-scored Vermont 54-10 in the paint and tallied 23 points off Vermont turnovers.

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Edwards's 28 points were a career high. She started the game 10 of 10 from the field.

"I think that we started the game off really well and we hit 'em with the first punch. I think that probably from the jump ball, I knew personally, individually, that I would be able to dominate inside, and I think Dorka had her own too," Edwards said. "I think that we just flowed together as a team. I think we had a lot of assists as well throughout the whole game. I think that we just capitalized on every possession that we could."

UConn is playing in its 34th straight NCAA Tournament and is aiming for a 15th consecutive Final Four. The Huskies are 131-22 all-time in March Madness and are 22-4 as a No. 2 seed. Saturday's win gave UConn coach Geno Auriemma his 26th 30-win season with the program.

Catherine Gilwee leads Vermont in scoring

Former Champlain Valley Union High School star Catherine Gilwee paced the Catamounts with 14 points and five assists. Her four 3-pointers were a game high. Emma Utterback (13 points, four assists) and Maria Myklebust (13 points) also reached double figures for the America East champions.

The Huskies built a 27-12 lead after the first quarter and rolled into halftime with a 53-20 advantage.

"Yeah, I would say playing against UConn where all the players are super talented and they're very athletic and they're big and strong," Gilwee said. "Obviously we don't have that athleticism to our advantage, so we got to be super locked in on all of our rules, all of our fundamentals on defense."

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Utterback said the team's biggest takeaway is to "remain ourselves" in big pressure games.

"None of us have been in that experience before," Utterback said. "We played Indiana earlier this year, but it was both of our first games, and March Madness is completely different. It's a completely different ball game.

"So we'll go back to the drawing board and we'll work in this off-season on staying true to ourselves when the pressure comes and staying confident in what we bring to the table."

Vermont women had their best season since reaching second round of 2010 NCAA Tournament

Vermont (25-7) had its longest winning streak (17 games) in three decades. The Catamounts made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since they reached the Round of 32 in 2010. And their regular-season America East championship was their first in 21 years.

"Yeah, well, you know, getting Vermont back to this level is really important for the growth of our program," Kresge said. "We talk a lot about it. But we want winners, and winners want to come and they want to work hard and they're going to do everything they can in their power to help your program win."

More:Marquette stymies UVM men's basketball at NCAA Tournament, ending Catamounts' season

Auriemma praised Vermont in his post-game news conference.

"They have access to a lot of kids, international or American kids, and I think their coaching staff is tremendous," Auriemma said. "I just think they have a sense of who they are, what they are and what they want to be and what they can do and what they can't do, and they don't try to do things they can't do.

"And they're very, very good at the things that they can do. So when have you that going for you, you can go pretty far".

Contact Alex Abrami or aabrami@freepressmedia.com and follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/aabrami5.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont women's basketball: UConn routs Catamounts in NCAA Tournament