– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT — One thing that could be difficult in going undefeated throughout an entire season is that there may not be much bulletin board material to motivate said team as it deals with the mounting pressure to stay perfect. If any team knows that feeling more than any other, no matter the sport, it is the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team, though even a master motivator such as Geno Auriemma did not have to dig deep to make sure his team was ready to bring home another championship on Monday night.
The last time Connecticut trailed at halftime in a game this season — and legitimate thoughts about the end of a perfect season creeped into any sort of realistic thinking — was against the opponent that lined up against the Huskies tonight, which meant a motivated UConn was surely not going to let a repeat of that happen.
Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong combined for 37 points as the top-ranked, undefeated Connecticut Huskies cruised to a 90-51 victory over the No. 2 seed Villanova Wildcats to win the school’s 24th Big East Tournament title and their 13th consecutive conference tournament championship.
One of the very, very, very few blips on the radar screen for the Huskies occurred just outside of Philadelphia on February 18, when Connecticut trailed the Wildcats 40-37 after the game’s first 20 minutes and led by just six with less than a minute in the third quarter. Tonight, after Strong nailed a three-pointer 54 seconds into the contest, UConn kept the lead for the rest of the night.
Fudd led the Huskies with 19 points while Strong, named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, had 18 points and eight rebounds in just 22 minutes.
Jasmine Bascoe, the two-time All Big East First Team selection who put up a near triple-double in that game against the Huskies in February (26 points, nine rebounds, seven assists), led Villanova tonight with 14 points, but went just 5-for-19 from the field and missed seven of her eight attempts from three.
Tonight’s win marks the 10th time that the Huskies will go into the NCAA Tournament undefeated, and they went on to win the national championship on six of the previous nine instances. The Huskies are sure to be the No. 1 overall seed in the Big Dance and will play their first two games in Storrs, Connecticut, while Villanova is sure to be an at-large selection and, more than likely, will travel to play its first-round opponent.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Monday’s Big East Tournament championship game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 37 pictures in total.
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