‘Flawless’ Huskies Head to Big East Final

The Story: The UConn women have returned for the Big East title game for the third time in their three seasons since rejoining the conference and will face No. 2 seed Villanova tonight at Mohegan Sun at 7 p.m. after they demolished No. 4 seed Marquette 81-52 yesterday afternoon in the semifinals.

RISE TO THE OCCASION: Geno Auriemma raved about the top-seeded Huskies’ performance after the game — and for good reason. Aaliyah Edwards, Dorka Juhasz and Nika Muhl all had a double-double and all five starters reached double figures in scoring for UConn, which defeated No. 9 seed Georgetown 69-39 on Saturday.

• Edwards had 20 points and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes, and Juhasz, whom Geno said played her best first half of the season, had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

• UConn’s frontcourt dominated Marquette’s and overall, the Huskies held an unthinkable 48-8 edge in points in the paint and outrebounded their opponent 45-32.

• Lou Lopez Senechal also had 14 points, Muhl had 11 points and 10 assists and Aubrey Griffin had 11 points and seven rebounds.

ON A ROLL: UConn (28-5) has advanced to a conference title game for the 19th consecutive season and is trying to win it for the 10th year in a row.

• The last time the Huskies didn’t reach the conference final was in 2004, when they were knocked out of the Big East tournament by Boston College. But it didn’t matter: That was the season both basketball teams won the national championship.

GOLDEN EGG: Marquette (21-10), which beat UConn 59-52 in Milwaukee on Feb. 8, didn’t stand a chance yesterday afternoon.

• UConn never trailed, held a seven-point lead just a tick after three minutes in and led 37-22 at halftime. The lead peaked at 33 with 3:34 left when Azzi Fudd knocked down a jumper to make it 76-43.

• Marquette’s Chloe Marotta, who was averaging nearly 15 points a game, had just two points on 1-for-9 shooting. She picked up her third foul late in the second quarter and was on the court for just 29 minutes. Jordan King also struggled to the tune of five points on 2-for-15 shooting. Liza Karlen had 18 points and Mackenzie Hare had 15.

• The Huskies shot 49.3 percent, even though they just went 5-for-20 from 3-point range, and limited Marquette to 30.2 percent shooting. In fact, the Golden Eagles made 10 2-pointers and 9 3-pointers.

• Marquette committed 17 turnovers, which UConn turned into 16 points. The Huskies, meanwhile, had just 13 turnovers, but the Golden Eagles scored 15 points off them.

GUESS WHO? The Huskies welcomed Fudd back for their Big East semifinal win over Georgetown. Fudd missed 14 games after reinjuring her right knee in a game against the Hoyas in January.

• Fudd had 10 points in 16 minutes off the bench on Saturday and then returned with four points in 21 minutes yesterday. She didn’t look too rusty, though the shots weren’t falling; she went 3-for-9 in her return and 2-for-7 against Marquette.

• The Huskies don’t have the world’s deepest bench, but they now have 10 players healthy for the first time since the win over Texas on Nov. 14 — the second game of the season.

WHAT DID FUDD SAY? “This was always my goal, to come back for tournament time. I was mentally prepared. When waking up [Saturday] morning, I was very excited.”

WHAT DID GENO SAY? “The final score was somewhat unexpected, but I thought we played a flawless game. I thought our defense was absolutely relentless the entire game and the last couple days of practice, we’re starting to get into a little bit of a flow offensively as well. But it all starts down at the defensive end. … I said [Edwards, Juhasz and Griffin] were going to have to come up really big today, and they did. I thought they dominated the game from the beginning of the game to the end.”

— Zac Boyer

Red-Hot Huskies Cooking at the Right Time

The Story: The No. 14 UConn men are one of the hottest teams in the nation and look primed for a run in the Big East tournament, which starts Thursday against Providence at Madison Square Garden.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: UConn secured the No. 4 seed in the tournament with an impressive road win at Villanova on Saturday.

• Jordan Hawkins is making a late run at Big East Player of the Year as he scored 24 points against the Wildcats. Hawkins has scored more than 20 points in four of the last five games and has been the best player in the conference over the last month.

• Alex Karaban, on the other hand, likely cemented his place as Freshman of the Year with 16 points. Karaban has become a critical piece to UConn’s offense as he’s averaging 9.7 points on 47% shooting.

• UConn became the No. 4 seed in the Big East tournament as Providence was annihilated at home on Saturday by Seton Hall.

• The early-round Big East tournament schedule:

First round — Wednesday
Game 1: No. 8 seed St. John’s vs. No. 9 seed Butler, 3 p.m., FS1
Game 2: No. 7 seed Seton Hall vs. No. 10 seed DePaul, 5:30 p.m., FS1
Game 3: No. 6 seed Villanova vs. No. 11 seed Georgetown, 8 p.m., FS1

Quarterfinals — Thursday
Game 4: No. 1 seed Marquette vs. Game 1 winner, noon, FS1
Game 5: No. 4 seed UConn vs. No. 5 seed Providence, 2:30 p.m., FS1
Game 6: No. 2 seed Xavier vs. Game 2 winner, 7 p.m., FS1
Game 7: No. 3 seed Creighton vs. Game 3 winner, 9:30 p.m., FS1

HAWKINS, SANOGO FIRST TEAM: Hawkins and Adama Sanogo were rewarded for their play as they were named to the all-Big East first team yesterday.

• Karaban and Donovan Clingan made the all-freshman team as the Huskies were well-represented across the spectrum.

SEEDING OUTLOOK: UConn has skyrocketed back up the metrics. It is No. 6 in the NET ranking and No. 4 in KenPom. We see the Huskies as a No. 4 seed in brackets, though we find that human brackets are a lagging indicator.

• UConn is a top-eight team in almost every metric out there. That constitutes a No. 2 seed. If the Huskies can beat Providence on Thursday, we expect to see UConn on the No. 3 line, which essentially makes it a top-12 team. If they win the Big East tournament, we think the Huskies can reach the No. 2 line.

• Don’t be too worried about the Huskies’ NCAA Tournament seed. Location, location, location is our interest. We would expect the Huskies to be in Albany for the first two rounds, but if they are in the East, that regional will be held at Madison Square Garden and would give them a de facto home-court advantage.

— John Silver

Morning Reads

• Justin Pearson had a hat trick, with two of his goals coming on the power play, as the No. 17 men’s hockey team held on for a 6-5 home win over Boston College on Saturday to split the home-and-home series. (The UConn Blog)

• The men’s hockey team has earned the No. 4 seed in the Hockey East tournament and will host UMass Lowell in a quarterfinal game at the Toscano Forum on Saturday. (The UConn Blog)

• Ben Huber went 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI as the baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Florida Atlantic with an 8-2 victory yesterday afternoon. (UConnHuskies.com)

• The women’s lacrosse team allowed five fourth-quarter goals and fell 16-12 to UMass at home on Saturday. (UConnHuskies.com)

• The volleyball team hired Lindsey Froehlich, who spent the last two seasons as the head coach at IUPUI, as an assistant coach. (UConnHuskies.com)

Top photo: Nika Muhl dribbles the ball during the Huskies’ game against Texas. (Ian Bethune for The UConn Daily)