The UConn Huskies women weren’t ready to play extended minutes without Sarah Strong on Thursday night in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The No. 2 Huskies lost 77-66 to No. 5 Michigan, giving the Wolverines a win against their highest-ranked opponent ever and snapping UConn’s 39-game winning streak in the regular season.

Strong picked up three quick fouls in the first half and was forced to sit the final 12:26 of the first half to prevent against a fourth.

Here are four takeaways from the loss for the Huskies (1-1).

Strong, the reigning national Player of the Year, was the wingwoman for Azzi Fudd last season, the two of them a nearly unstoppable combination. And when one was out of the game, the other took over.

The wingwoman for Strong has yet to emerge this early in the season, though freshman Jovana Popovic is making a case that it could be her down the road.

With Strong out of the game, Michigan (1-0) settled into a 2-3 zone defense that stymied the Huskies.

In the first half, the Huskies shot just 38.7% (12 of 31) overall and 21.4% from 3-point range. They turned the ball over nine times and registered just seven assists, a disparity just not seen on a Geno Auriemma-coached team.

And without Strong in the game to help defend in the key, Michigan scored 14 points in the paint in the opening half, taking a 35-29 lead into halftime. The 2025-26 version of the Huskies routinely punished opponents in the second quarter. On Thursday, the Wolverines outscored the Huskies 18-8 in the second as Strong spent the entire frame on the bench.

In the second half, Strong could not put up a fight on defense at risk of another foul, and the Wolverines took advantage of it. She finished with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting to go with eight rebounds but wound up fouling out in the closing seconds.

Popovic, from Serbia, is an emerging star. That was evident in the preseason, but that star got even brighter on Thursday. She kept the Huskies in the game in the first half, scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting and adding four rebounds. She ended with a game-high 25 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Olivia Vukosa, the reigning Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year, still is finding her way in the college game, and Auriemma and his staff will have some criticisms after watching the film. However, she scored eight points and pulled down five rebounds to keep the game within reach.

A strength of the team last season was its ability to supplement Fudd and Strong with contributions from a strong group of 3-point shooters.

The group of Allie Ziebell, Kayleigh Heckel and Ashlynn Shade, however, played a combined 52 minutes and accounted for just six points on 2-of-13 shooting, including 1-of-10 from long distance.

For UConn to have success against the schedule gauntlet it faces in nonconference play, those three upperclassmen will need to deliver.

The UConn team that finished 38-1 last season averaged 12.6 turnovers and forced 24.1 per game from opponents. The numbers on Thursday? UConn turned the ball over 19 times and generated 14 turnovers.

The Huskies managed just 16 assists, down from their average of 23.2 last season.

UConn has a very short window in which to fix its second-game woes. The Huskies host No. 10 Iowa on Sunday at Gampel Pavilion. Fudd will be there as she is inducted into the Huskies of Honor.

Unfortunately, she can’t put on the No. 35 again for UConn.