WOMEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY

VILLANOVA at No. 8 UCONN

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Where: XL Center

Records: UConn (15-4, 9-0 Big East), Villanova (15-6, 9-3)

TV: SNY

Radio: UConn Sports Network

KEEP AN EYE ON

Will Caroline Ducharme return? The freshman sat out of Sunday’s game against Tennessee as a precaution after getting hit in the head during UConn’s games the week prior. Coach Geno Auriemma said Ducharme tested negative for a concussion. However, she wasn’t feeling well Saturday and the morning of Sunday’s game, so Auriemma took her out to give her additional rest. It was unclear on Sunday, when Ducharme would return.

Azzi Fudd has arrived: Fudd started in place of Ducharme Sunday for the first time in her eight-game collegiate career. After coming back from a foot injury two weeks ago, Fudd had her best game yet and led UConn with a career-high 25 points, including going 7 of 9 from the 3-point line, in 381⁄2minutes. It was the Fudd-show UConn fans had long been waiting for after she left the season only four games in with the foot injury. Now that she’s back, the Huskies will spend the last seven games of the regular season continuing to fold her into offensive schemes and building her chemistry with teammates.

“Today, I think was the first game where she took it upon herself to be present the entire game. We look for her more, we ran more stuff for her and she didn’t pass up any shots,” Auriemma said after Sunday’s game. “If you would have watched the game, you would have thought she was an upperclassman playing out there, that she was a senior. … Today she just looked like a happy kid playing the game she loves. She makes it look easy, doesn’t she? Just like a machine, man.”

Scouting the Wildcats: Villanova brings a seven-game win streak into Wednesday’s matchup, while UConn brings a seasonbest six-game win streak. The Wildcats shouldn’t be too much of a problem for the Huskies, however; their only losses in Big East play have come to the three teams who have challenged the Huskies the most: DePaul (a 75-63 loss), Creighton (72-58) and Providence (66-47).

Maddy Siegrist leads the Wildcats with 25.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game this season after leading the Big East last year in points (23.1) and rebounds (10.1) per game.