WOMEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY
XAVIER AT NO. 4 UCONN
When: Monday, 7 p.m.
What: Senior Night / Regular-season Finale
Where: Gampel Pavilion
Records: UConn (25-5, 17-2 Big East), Xavier (8-20, 0-19)
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: UConn Sports Network, WGCH 1490 AM (Greenwich), WAVZ 1300 AM (New Haven), WATR 1320 AM (Waterbury), 97.9 FM-ESPN
KEEP AN EYE ON
Locked in: UConn close out the regularseason at Gampel Pavilion against Xavier after a senior night celebration for graduate students Dorka Juhász and Lou Lopez Sénéchal.
Both the Huskies and Musketeers have locked in their seeding for next weekend’s Big East Tournament. Xavier has yet to win a conference game this season and will be No. 11 in the tournament, while the Huskies secured the No. 1 seed in their win at DePaul on Saturday.
UConn has already won a share of the Big East regular-season championship (its 10th straight conference regular-season title and 29th overall). The Huskies need to win Monday’s game to win this year’s title outright. A loss to Xavier and Villanova win over Seton Hall will result in sharing the crown with the Wildcats. Pass performance: Point guard Nika Mühl has the chance to pass Sue Bird as the program’s record holder for most assists in a single season. Mühl currently sits at No. 2 with 229 in 29 games so far this season. Bird had 231 in the 2001-02 season.
Bench mark: The Huskies will likely remain with just nine available players as coach Geno Auriemma does not have a specific return timeline for Azzi Fudd. The star sophomore has missed the last 13 games (20 total) due to a right knee injury. On Saturday, she participated in pregame warmups for the first time since Jan. 15. Catching up: Xavier and UConn last met on Jan. 5 in Cincinnati. The Huskies, despite not having Fudd or Caroline Ducharme, ran through the Musketeers, 7337. However, both Aaliyah Edwards (ankle) and Ayanna Patterson (concussion) suffered injuries in that game which forced UConn to postpone its next scheduled game since it did not meet the conference minimum of seven available players.
Since then, UConn has remained at the top of the Big East despite falling to both St. John’s and Marquette. As for Xavier, it’s fallen to the very bottom of the conference.
The Musketeers enter Monday’s regular-season finale going without a win in the Big East and are on an 18-game losing streak. Most recently, they fell 58-46 against Marquette on Saturday. If they lose Monday’s meeting with UConn, it’ll be the first time in program history they end the season without a conference win.
Because of its winless conference record, Xavier has already locked in the No. 11 seed in next weekend’s Big East Tournament at Mohegan Sun.
The Musketeers’ closest Big East game so far this year was a 50-48 loss against Providence on Jan. 28. Xavier’s last win was a 48-35 victory over Cincinnati on Dec. 9.
UConn is 6-0 all-time over Xavier. The teams’ played only once before the Huskies’ rejoined the Big East in 2020 with UConn winning 86-84 in Storrs on March 15, 1999. That game remains the closest UConn has allowed the Musketeers.