New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
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 30-year streak without back-to-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 Villanova-No. 3 Creighton (Monday at 7 p.m.) looking to win their 10th-straight conference tournament title (thirdstraight 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 three-straight 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