VILLANOVA, Pa. — At halftime of Wednesday night’s game against Villanova at Finneran Pavilion, the UConn women’s basketball team looked utterly shell-shocked.
For the first time since their February 2023 loss to St. John’s, the Huskies found themselves trailing at halftime against a Big East opponent. Of the Huskies starters, only redshirt senior guard Azzi Fudd had first-hand experience playing from behind in the Big East, and it suddenly felt like the team’s streak of almost three undefeated years in the conference was in real jeopardy.
It took a heroic offensive performance from Fudd and a smothering second-half defensive effort to avert disaster for UConn, but the Huskies escaped Villanova with an 83-69 victory to improve to 28-0 on the season and 17-0 in the Big East.
UConn clinched the Big East regular-season championship with the win.
Fudd finished with 25 points shooting 55.6% from the field and 4-for-6 beyond the arc, accounting for half of the team’s 3-point makes. The star guard added three rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. All-American sophomore Sarah Strong also had a dominant showing, recording her seventh double-double of the season with 21 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, five steals and three blocks.
Junior guard Ashlynn Shade stepped up in key moments to join the superstar duo in double digits, logging 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and a steal.
Slow starts have been an issue for UConn throughout Big East play, but the Huskies had an epic early meltdown at Villanova. The team faced its first halftime deficit of the season after giving up 12 turnovers — more than it has allowed in 12 complete games this year. Though Fudd and Strong were as productive as usual, the rest of the offense stymied particularly in the second quarter.
UConn went nearly five minutes in the second quarter without hitting a shot, starting 0-for-7 from the field. Shade came in clutch with a steal that she turned into a jump shot at the other end to end the drought, and she scored five straight points later in the quarter that briefly gave the Huskies the lead.
But Villanova found an answer every time UConn tried to build momentum. The Wildcats shot 7-for-15 on 3-pointers before halftime, and star guard Jasmine Bascoe put up 18 points singlehandedly after she scored just eight in the first meeting between the teams on Jan. 15. It was only a late 3-pointer from Fudd that kept it a single-possession game, and she was the only UConn player in double-digits at halftime. The Huskies shot just 29% in the second quarter, and they were 4-for-12 on layups in the first half.
UConn was immediately more aggressive out of the halftime locker room, opening the third quarter on a 9-2 run, but some over-zealous defense put a stop to the momentum. Strong had to check out of the game four minutes into the third after picking up her third and fourth fouls over a six-second stretch, and Villanova took advantage with the sophomore superstar off the floor. The Wildcats scored eight of their 12 points in the quarter after Strong came out, but the Huskies managed to maintain some offensive rhythm to outscore Villanova 26-12 in the third.
UConn finally pulled away in earnest in the fourth quarter thanks to an early 13-2 run that the Wildcats never recovered from. The Huskies finished with 28 points off of 26 forced turnovers, and they held Villanova to 45% shooting in the second half.
Though UConn emerged with the victory, Bascoe finished with 26 points for Villanova for the highest-scoring performance by any Big East player against the Huskies this year. Wildcats senior Denae Carter also added 21 points, becoming one of just three players in the conference along with Bascoe and Creighton’s Ava Zediker to score 20-plus on UConn.