UConn women win 20th Big East title, avenge loss to Villanova with 70-40 win
This was clearly not the Feb. 9 UConn team that Villanova was facing Monday night in the Big East Tournament championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Villanova beat UConn that night at the XL Center, ending the Huskies’ 169-game conference winning streak. But the Huskies also had no Paige Bueckers, no Caroline Ducharme and no Olivia Nelson-Ododa that day in early February.
Monday, they were all back and UConn was a different team, playing lockdown defense on Villanova’s top player Maddie Siegrist, the second-leading scorer in the country, and the Wildcats in general.
Top-seeded UConn beat No. 2 Villanova 70-40 for its 27th conference tournament title and 20th Big East championship.
The Huskies (25-5) will wait to see where they are sent for the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday. They are likely to be a No. 2 seed in the tournament, but it’s uncertain in which region they will end up.
UConn had a very balanced scoring effort Monday with Evina Westbrook leading the Huskies with 13 points, Aaliyah Edwards with 12 and Nelson-Ododa adding 11.
Christyn Williams, who scored nine points, was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
“This one is my favorite one, this championship,” Williams said. “We just stuck together. We never gave up.”
The last time Villanova played UConn in the Big East Tournament championship game was 2003, when Diana Taurasi was a junior. Villanova won that game, 52-48, ending then-No. 1 UConn’s 70-game winning streak, the longest in Division I. That was the last time Villanova won the Big East title.
This season, Villanova (23-8) was averaging 66.4 points per game and Siegrist 26.4 points. But UConn, which held its last six opponents to 51 or fewer points, did it again, holding Villanova to its lowest point total of the season. Siegrist ended up leading Villanova with 16 points. She was the only Wildcats player to score in double figures.
In the Feb. 9 game, Villanova was 10 for 22 from the 3-point line and hit nine 3-pointers in the semifinals against Seton Hall. Monday, the Wildcats were 7 for 23 from 3 and 16 for 50 from the field while UConn shot 55 percent from the field.
Huskies freshman Azzi Fudd, who shot 1 for 9 in the semifinals against Marquette, had nine points on 4 for 5 shooting Monday.
UConn came out in the first quarter and promptly turned the ball over twice. But the Huskies settled down, and their defense was stellar. After a Villanova timeout at the 6:05 mark, the Wildcats finally scored their first points on a 3-pointer by Brianna Herlihy and UConn led 9-3.
The Huskies extended the lead to 17-10 after a quarter, shooting 53 percent from the field, while Villanova made only four field goals.
Ducharme made the first three shots for the Huskies in the second quarter, and Villanova was still struggling to score. Herlihy finally scored on a fast-break layup with 5:35 left in the half, which cut UConn’s lead to 21-12.
The Huskies led by as many as 17 in the second quarter, but Villanova closed out the half with three baskets from Siegrist. UConn led 33-18 at halftime.
Villanova shot 2 for 11 from the 3-point line in the half. The Huskies, meanwhile, were shooting 56 percent overall (14 for 25).
Siegrist hit the first basket of the second half, but she was quiet after that with Williams guarding her.
UConn had 10 turnovers in the first half but limited its turnovers to one in the third quarter and played lockdown defense on the Wildcats, limiting them to eight points in the quarter. The Huskies led 49-26 after three quarters.
Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.
