UConn looks to lock up outright Big East crown against Xavier

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 regular-season 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 regular-season 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 UConn in Milwaukee on Feb. 8 to snap the Huskies’ near 30-year

streak without losses.

Last week, on Tuesday, the Huskies suffered their first loss to St. John’s in over a decade.

Georgetown, Villanova, Providence, Creighton and DePaul all challenged UConn and finished within 10 points or less of the Huskies.

“It’s like going back in time for me,” Auriemma said. “We lived like this in the ‘80s, ‘90s to a certain extent where it was a real, real struggle every night. I think as time goes by you forget that this is supposed to be really, really hard and I think these last two seasons, and especially this season, it’s been a huge reminder of how hard this is to do because every team that you play has the ability to beat you.”

Through all the close games and nail-biting finishes, the Huskies have learned even more about themselves.

They’ve grown up and matured. They’ve learned how to dig deep for extra energy and make crucial plays in critical moments. They’ve learned to never doubt an opponent and never give anything less than 100 percent on the back-toback

court.

“It has been stressful, and it’s something that’s not really expected at UConn, you know, you come in here and you see all these previous teams beat everybody by 30 every game,” Nika Mühl said. “So these past few weeks have definitely been challenging, especially with the injuries and everything that we

have been dealing with . ...

“The losses that we have had have taught us to prepare for every game and think of every game as a national championship game. Like it’s the last game of our careers. And I feel like we have, you know, come into games expecting to win sometimes, which is not good. Like, we don’t have a team like that that can just come

in and blow out everybody by 30 right now. So, I feel like just understanding that every game has the same importance because every team is going to come out and try to beat us in any way they can.”

Even players who don’t often get as many minutes come game time have grown and impressed. On Saturday, freshman Ayanna Patterson came off the bench and grabbed four clutch defensive rebounds in the fourth quarter to fend off the Blue Demons.

“She won the game for us today and I feel like she was that crucial factor for us,” Mühl said. “Her energy coming off the bench; she’s been working so hard all year and I feel like it finally paid off and it showed her that like, ‘Man, I can win the game for us.’ And she definitely did.”

But with the postseason starting this coming weekend, the Huskies still have a lot to prove. They fell from a No. 1 seed to a No. 2 seed in Thursday’s Top-16 reveal and are still missing a key part of their offense without Azzi Fudd.

A win on Monday would add to the Senior Day celebration (graduate transfers Dorka Juhász and Lou Lopez Sénéchal will be honored before the game) before the team can take rest with four days off before they begin the Big East Tournament in the quarterfinals against the winner of Butler-Georgetown on Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena.

“Just us competing and being tough is really what it comes down to,” Aaliyah Edwards said. “No game is gonna be easy. As you know, we’ve been dealing with stuff like this the whole season. So,

No. 4 UCONN 72, DEPAUL 69 Saturday’s result

moving forward, we’re just gonna have to trust each other, rely on each other and make sure that we’re staying competitive.”

Erin Hooley/Associated Press UConn coach Geno Auriemma reacts during the second half against DePaul on Saturday.