Villanova pushes the Huskies, who wind up with underwhelming first-half stats but still manage victory.
It was Jan. 15 that the No. 1 UConn women throttled visiting Villanova, embarrassing the Wildcats with a 49-point margin of victory.
Villanova clearly didn’t want that to happen again Wednesday night. In the first half, the Wildcats gave the Huskies all they could handle before UConn emerged with a hard-fought 83-69 win in Philadelphia.
The Wildcats (21-6, 14-4) entered the game in second place in the Big East, three games back of the Huskies (28-0, 17-0). UConn clinched the conference regular-season title with the victory.
In the first half, Villanova did all the things that UConn typically does to be successful.
In fact, Villanova took a 40-37 lead at halftime – the first time the Huskies have trailed at the half all season.
Villanova forced an uncharacteristic 12 first-half UConn turnovers, stole the ball seven times and outrebounded the Huskies 22-17. The Wildcats didn’t allow the Huskies to get into their offensive set, causing them to take lower-percentage shots than usual.
UConn shot just 40.6% in the half, well below its season average of 53.0, which leads the nation.
And Villanova shot 44.8%, well above UConn’s best-in-the-nation 33.4% field goal percentage defense.
UConn came out for the second half looking much more like the No. 1 team in the rankings. They went on a 12-2 run to immediately erase the deficit and take a seven-point lead.
Freshman Blanca Quinonez returned from a six-game absence due to a shoulder injury and was needed in the second half when Sarah Strong picked up two quick fouls on back-to-back plays and was forced to go to the bench with four at the 5:57 mark of the third quarter.
Quinonez scored four in the quarter and Serah Williams added six points and two rebounds to help without Strong on the court.
With their better shot selection, UConn shot 60% (9 of 15) in the quarter and took a 63-52 lead at the end of the third.
Villanova couldn’t recover and was outscored 20-17 in the fourth quarter. Strong returned and had 11 of her 21 points in the frame. She also led UConn with 12 rebounds.
Azzi Fudd scored 25 points with Ashlynn Shade adding 13 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Jasmine Bascoe led Villanova with 26 points and nine rebounds. Denae Carter added 21.
This was UConn’s second consecutive road game. They played at Marquette on Saturday and managed just a 71-56 win, well below their 38.8 points per game average margin of victory.
By the numbers
- UConn now has won 11 consecutive games against Villanova and moved to 49-18 all-time in the series – 49-12 under Auriemma.
- Fudd reached the 20-point mark for the third consecutive game. On Monday, she was named the Big East Player of the Week for the second week in a row. She averaged 22 points and shot 54.5% from the field and 66.7% from 3-point range last week.
- This was the 64th consecutive Big East victory, including conference tournament games, for the Huskies.
- UConn has won at least 25 games for the 33rd straight season and 35th time overall.
Join the Conversation
Remember to join our UCONN on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Huskies fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!