NEW YORK — For the first time since 2018, the UConn women’s basketball team is headed into the postseason with a perfect record.
The No. 1 Huskies completed their undefeated regular season in historic fashion on Sunday night, dominating St. John’s 85-49 in the first-ever standalone college women’s basketball game played at Madison Square Garden. The 9,612 fans in the building shattered the St. John’s program record for home attendance.
With its 47th consecutive win, UConn tied the fifth-longest winning streak in women’s basketball history and the fourth in program history set from 2013-15. The Huskies also finished their third straight unbeaten season in the Big East, winning a program-record 20th conference game to improve to 31-0.
But the most exciting part of the accomplishment for All-American sophomore Sarah Strong was the rare praise the team got from coach Geno Auriemma in the postgame locker room.
“Coach came in and said he was proud of us,” Strong said, glancing over at Auriemma with a small smirk. “But we have a lot to work on to get ready for the Big East tournament, so just enjoy the win now and be ready to get back to work.”
The victory was a return to form for UConn after struggling with sluggish performances down the stretch of Big East play. For the first time since a Feb. 4 win at DePaul, the Huskies led wire-to-wire at the Garden, and they looked completely in control at both ends of the floor.
“It’s not an easy journey by any stretch of the imagination, and at UConn it’s much different than playing somewhere else,” Auriemma said. “It’s not easy when you’re expected to win every single game, and if you do lose it’s because there’s something wrong with you, not because the other team played great … When you are fortunate enough to go through 31 games and win them all, there is something to be proud of. They should feel good about it and be proud of themselves.”
Strong anchored the team with 11 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, and she also tied a career high with six steals. But behind the superstar forward, every player in the core rotation made an impact. Star guard Azzi Fudd led the offense with 14 points and added two steals, and senior center Serah Williams came a point shy of tying her season high, scoring 11 on 5-for-6 shooting on top of six rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
The Huskies smothered St. John’s from the tipoff, breaking open an 11-point lead before the Red Storm even hit a second field goal. Junior guard Ashlynn Shade put up all seven of her points in the first to lead UConn, but the offense was a balanced effort from the start with six different players scoring. The team also had one of its better starts on the boards, logging seven second-chance points and out-rebounding St. John’s 4-1 on the offensive glass.
Auriemma experimented with some atypical lineups throughout the first half, throwing different looks at the Red Storm. Redshirt sophomore Jana El Alfy got an unusually early opportunity, coming in first off the bench before the three-minute mark of the first quarter, and Auriemma also took Strong off the floor for several stretches to see the team’s other bigs navigate without her presence.
Williams got going in the second quarter playing in the team’s supersized lineup alongside Strong and freshman forward Blanca Quinonez, scoring back-to-back layups after St. John’s opened on four straight points. Sophomore guard Allie Ziebell also thrived in the post-heavy group, driving for a layup off a Strong assist then rebounding a Williams block that she took to the rim again on the next possession.
“As much as you want to talk about Sarah and Azzi, then you look at a kid like (Ziebell), and then they have (Kayleigh) Heckel and Blanca. There’s a lot there,” St. John’s coach Joe Tartamella said. “They’re healthy, they have depth … When they’re firing on all cylinders, they’re really good.”
UConn entered halftime without a player scoring in double digits, but eight of the nine who saw the floor were on the board. Despite going 3-for-10 from beyond the arc, the team shot 56% from the field and had 24 points of their 43 points in the paint.
The Huskies’ shooters warmed up out of halftime, and the team connected four times from the perimeter in the third quarter alone. Fudd knocked down her first of the game after an 0-for-4 start, and Arnold also hit her first 3-pointer since a Feb. 7 win over Butler. Ziebell drained a pair of deep shots in the second half to finish with 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting from the field.
Though UConn allowed 29 points in the second half after giving up just 20 in the first, the Red Storm never put a real dent in the Huskies’ lead. The Huskies finished shooting 57.1% from the field and 39.1% on 3-pointers, also scoring 25 points off of 22 forced turnovers.
“We’ve got a great group, and we can do a lot of different things, and our defense has been really, really good all season long,” Auriemma said. “If we stay, you know, in that mindset, then we’ll have a chance (at a national championship), just like we want to do every year. We just want a chance.”
The top-seeded Huskies begin the postseason Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena, where they will face the winner of the first-round game between 8-seed Georgetown and 9-seed Butler.
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