The UConn women’s basketball team gave up just two field goals in the second quarter of Thursday’s win over Georgetown at PeoplesBank Arena, but that didn’t stop coach Geno Auriemma from hollering furiously at star guard Azzi Fudd when she missed a switch on defense that allowed the Hoyas their only 3-pointer.
Fudd instantly silenced the Huskies coach’s blustering by draining her fourth shot from beyond the arc seconds after Georgetown’s make. Her 3-pointer launched an 11-0 UConn run that sent the team into halftime leading by 23.
Behind the dominant second quarter, the No. 1 Huskies went on to rout the Hoyas 84-52 to improve to 30-0 this season and 19-0 in Big East play. The victory broke a program record for most conference wins in a single season, and it also tied UConn for the sixth-longest winning streak in women’s basketball history with 46 in a row. The program has now won at least 30 games in each of the last five seasons and 29 times in its history.
The team accepted the Big East regular-season championship trophy on the court after its final home game in Hartford, complete with an explosion of blue and white confetti.
“I’m glad they were able to do that,” Auriemma said after the celebration. “It still means a lot to our team, to our players. They promised us a robust confetti shower, and I thought they delivered on that … There’s a lot of excitement for those kids who have never experienced this before, and that’s kind of what makes it fun.”
As they have in nearly all of the Huskies’ wins this season, Fudd and All-American sophomore Sarah Strong dominated. Fudd put up 24 points on six made 3-pointers, the most she’s hit in a game since dropping seven against Michigan on Nov. 21. Despite the missed closeout, Fudd also anchored UConn defensively with four steals on top of four assists and five rebounds.
Strong posted her eighth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds in just 23 minutes, and she approached a triple-double with a team-high seven assists. Freshman Blanca Quinonez also scored in double-digits for the first time since returning from a shoulder injury that sidelined her for six games, finishing with 10 points plus four steals and a pair of assists.
Georgetown let Fudd get hot early, allowing her too much space beyond the arc on back-to-back possessions that she connected on in the first two minutes of the game. The star guard hit three shots from the perimeter in the opening quarter, accounting for 13 of the Huskies’ 21 points.
“You know how Azzi is when she gets it going,” Auriemma said. “She’s still not shooting the ball great great, but she does have the ability to set the tone for a game, and she certainly did that today.”
But the Hoyas kept the game within striking distance, trailing UConn by a single point at the end of the first thanks to a 4-for-7 start from 3-point range. The Huskies had trouble finding offensive rhythm outside of Fudd’s shooting until Quinonez checked in and immediately ended the team’s three-minute scoring drought with a steal that she dished to junior guard Ashlynn Shade for an open layup.
After a quiet first quarter, Strong took over in the second. She started the quarter on a solo 10-0 run over less than three minutes, shooting 4-for-5 from the field during that stretch. The Huskies also began to lock down on the perimeter defensively and held Georgetown to just 1-for-8 in the second quarter. The team never looked back after Strong’s run, outscoring the Hoyas 23-5 in the second with 12 points coming off eight Georgetown turnovers.
“During our timeouts, I made a really key adjustment. I said we should guard them at the 3-point line,” Auriemma quipped. “And it worked. It really did … It takes a little bit of time I think, to kind of get into the defensive flow, just like it does on the offensive flow. I thought we were a little slow getting to who we needed to get to, and to their credit, they knocked them down.”
The rest of the Huskies got more involved out of halftime, opening on another 13-0 run without any points from Fudd or Strong. Senior center Serah Williams, who played just four minutes in the first half, put up five straight points to start the third quarter, and Shade added another five in a row to keep the momentum rolling.
Shade finished with 12 points, leading UConn with eight in the second half. Sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel became the fifth player in double digits when she knocked down a 3-pointer in the fourth, putting up 11 points shooting 100% from the field and snagging three steals.
The Huskies continued to smother Georgetown defensively down the stretch, ending with 26 points off 23 forced turnovers and holding it to 32% shooting from the field. The Hoyas made just three shots from 3-point range after the first quarter, ending the game 7-for-28 from deep.