UConn looking to lock up outright Big East crown

CHICAGO — The UConn women’s basketball team will close out the regular season Monday night at Gampel Pavilion.

It’s been another year of gutting injuries and historic losses, yet still the Huskies again prevailed and come out stronger on the other side during a season where the Big East’s talent was on full display.

UConn secured the No. 1 seed in next weekend’s Big East Tournament and at least a share of the conference regularseason crown Saturday after edging out DePaul in the fourth quarter.

With a win on Monday against Xavier (which sits at the bottom of the Big East without a conference win), the Huskies will take sole ownership of their 10th straight conference regularseason title (seven in American Athletic and the last three in Big East) and 29th overall. However, a UConn loss combined with a Villanova win will force the Huskies to share the regular-season title with the Wildcats.

“Anytime you win a Big East championship, or any championship, it means a lot,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “That’s what you play the games for, right? So, when you win one it feels really really good. The players are not really excited yet until Monday because they feel like we need to win one more game, but I’m really proud of them. This whole season was really hard and it’s not going to get easier.”

Unlike in years past, when just the Huskies made national noise, the Big East has continually had two to four teams in the national conversation and AP Top 25 Poll throughout this year. During Thursday’s second NCAA Top-16 reveal, both UConn and Villanova were projected to be top-15 seeds in next month’s NCAA Tournament.

And the competition has shown just as much on the court.

UConn lost two regular-season conference games for the first time since the 2012-13 season. Marquette beat