Top-ranked Huskies overpower Eagles
The Connecticut Huskies have returned to rule Big East women's basketball.
The top-ranked Huskies rode a hot start and cruised to a 73-39 over Marquette in the conference tournament championship Monday night at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Connecticut (24-1) claimed its 19th Big East tournament title, but the Huskies spent the last seven seasons as members of the American Athletic Conference. Including tournament games, Connecticut has won 160 straight games against conference opponents.
The Golden Eagles (19-6) were playing in their fifth straight Big East championship game. They won in 2017 but have lost the last four.
MU fell to 0-12 against Connecticut.
The Golden Eagles also have never beaten a No. 1-ranked team.
It was clear early that those droughts weren't going to end on Monday night. The Huskies scored the first nine points of the game, and then a 13-0 run made it 27-6. By the end of the first quarter, Connecticut had a 29-10 advantage and MU had committed five turnovers.
The Huskies started a scorching 12 for 17 (70.1%) in the first 10 minutes.
Connecticut pushed the lead to 3914 with 4:20 remaining in the second quarter. But MU got a spark in the final minute of the first half from little-used sophomore guard Antwainette Walker. The transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock came off the bench to hit a jumper off an offensive rebound and then swiped the ball for a breakaway layup that cut the deficit to 41-23 at the break.
MU's Liza Karlen scored the first bucket of the second half, but that would be as close as the Golden Eagles would get as Huskies star freshman Paige Bueckers scored seven points in the third quarter to get the lead up to 56-30.
Connecticut's advantage would balloon to 67-32 in the fourth quarter.
Bueckers, the Big East player and freshman of the year, scored 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting.
Sophomore forward Camryn Taylor led MU with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
The Golden Eagles will learn their NCAA Tournament seeding next Monday.