A little payback
UConn blows past Marquette and into Big East title game
UNCASVILLE — The UConn women’s basketball team was out for revenge.
After Marquette snapped the program’s 30year streak without backto-back losses last month in Milwaukee, the Huskies weren’t going to let the Golden Eagles upset them again — especially with a trip to the Big East
Tournament championship on the line.
The No. 1 seeded Huskies blew past No. 5 Marquette 81-52 in Sunday’s tournament semifinals to advance to their 19th straight conference tournament championship. The Huskies will face the winner of No. 2 VillanovaNo. 3 Creighton (Monday at 7 p.m.) looking to win their 10th-straight conference tournament title (third-straight in the Big
East) and 28th total.
UConn once again had 10 available players Sunday as sophomore guard Caroline Ducharme was available to play despite sitting out the second half of Saturday’s quarterfinals due to an apparent head injury.
But the Huskies didn’t need the extra depth.
All five usual starters finished in double figures with three recording double-doubles: Aaliyah Edwards
(20 points, 12 rebounds), Dorka Juhasz (14 points, 11 rebounds) and Nika Muhl (11 points, 10 assists).
UConn completely dismantled the Golden Eagles so much that all five Husky starters spent the last two-plus minutes of the game on the bench.
The Huskies picked up where they left off after routing Georgetown in Saturday’s quarterfinals to open Sunday’s semifinal. UConn built a 9-2 run within the first three minutes. Lou Lopez Senechal had five of UConn’s first nine points.
UConn’s offense was again flowing while its defense kept the Golden Eagles from scoring inside the paint.
Marquette was able to find success on the outside and drained threestraight 3-pointers to cut a 13-point UConn to lead five
with an 8-0 run to start the second quarter.
The Golden Eagles’ change of pace kept UConn scoreless for over four minutes as it suffered three turnovers during that span.
Geno Auriemma put his starters back in for the final four-and-a-half minutes to try to regain control. And it worked. Juhasz’s layup under the basket snapped its scoring drought.
The rest of the Huskies continued the response and strung together a 6-0 run to grab back a double-digit lead. Plus, it helped that Marquette’s Chloe Marotta received her third personal foul and headed to the bench with over three minutes remaining in the half.
UConn kept the momentum going and ended the half on a 12-2 run, forcing Marquette into four turnovers.
An Aubrey Griffin putback layup put UConn by 15 heading into halftime as the Golden Eagles
missed their last six shots. Both Edwards and Lopez Senechal had reach double-digit scoring as Juhasz was just a point and rebound away from already reaching a double-double.
The Huskies opened the third with six points in less than 40 seconds, including a Nika Muhl stealand-score. Marquette responded by calling timeout a minute and three seconds in.
A 3-pointer from Griffin not even a minute later put UConn up by 20 to secure the game’s victory.
Griffin came up big for UConn on both ends of the floor. She had a major block against the Golden Eagles and had a game-high four steals before the fourth quarter.
Muhl recorded her second career double-double halfway through the fourth with an assist to Edwards, giving her 10 games this season with double-digit assists.
UConn’s offense outscored Marquette 46-8 in the paint. UConn scored 16 points off Marquette’s 17 turnovers and outrebounded