For the fourth time in seven weeks, the UConn women’s basketball team swept the Big East’s weekly awards on Monday.
Sophomore superstar Sarah Strong earned her third Player of the Week honor after leading the Huskies to a pair of dominant victories over Marquette and No. 14 Iowa. Strong averaged 22.5 points, seven rebounds, three assists and four steals across the two games, also shooting 63.3% from the field and 46.2% on 3-pointers. She put up 22 points, seven boards, two blocks and two steals in No. 1 UConn’s 89-53 rout of Marquette on Wednesday, then logged 23 points with seven boards and four assists plus a career high six steals in Saturday’s 90-64 win against Iowa.
Strong now has 21 career 20-point games, tied for the third most by any UConn player since 2000 through their first two seasons — and Strong still has at least 20 more games to play in her sophomore campaign. She is currently tied with Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and trails only Maya Moore with 30 and Breanna Stewart with 31.
Blanca Quinonez completed the sweep for the Huskies winning her fourth Freshman of the Week recognition. She averaged 11 points and four rebounds across UConn’s wins last week while shooting 60% from the field and 50% beyond the arc. She was the team’s third leading scorer against Marquette with 12 points and four rebounds, and she added 10 points against Iowa on top of a season-high five assists, four steals and four boards.
The Huskies return to play Sunday for a Big East matchup against Butler in Indianapolis. They are currently 3-0 against conference opponents and enter the holiday break as one of three teams undefeated in Big East play alongside Creighton and Villanova.
UConn women’s basketball enters holiday break No. 1 in AP Top 25 after fifth ranked win vs. Iowa