{"id":634108,"date":"2026-03-02T09:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634108\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:07:11","slug":"uconn-women-rout-st-johns-to-end-regular-season-unbeaten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634108\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn women rout St. John’s to end regular season unbeaten"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 For the first time since 2018, the UConn women\u2019s basketball<\/a> team is headed into the postseason with a perfect record.<\/p>\n

The No. 1 Huskies completed their undefeated regular season in historic fashion on Sunday night, dominating St. John\u2019s<\/a> 85-49 in the first-ever standalone college women\u2019s basketball game played at Madison Square Garden. The 9,612 fans in the building shattered the St. John\u2019s program record for home attendance.<\/p>\n

With its 47th consecutive win, UConn tied the fifth-longest winning streak in women\u2019s 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<\/a>, winning a program-record 20th conference game to improve to 31-0.<\/p>\n

But the most exciting part of the accomplishment for All-American sophomore Sarah Strong<\/a> was the rare praise the team got from coach Geno Auriemma in the postgame locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach came in and said he was proud of us,\u201d Strong said, glancing over at Auriemma with a small smirk. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an easy journey by any stretch of the imagination, and at UConn it\u2019s much different than playing somewhere else,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy when you\u2019re expected to win every single game, and if you do lose it\u2019s because there\u2019s something wrong with you, not because the other team played great \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> led the offense with 14 points and added two steals, and senior center Serah Williams<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The Huskies smothered St. John\u2019s from the tipoff, breaking open an 11-point lead before the Red Storm even hit a second field goal. Junior guard Ashlynn Shade<\/a> 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\u2019s 4-1 on the offensive glass.<\/p>\n

Auriemma experimented with some atypical lineups throughout the first half, throwing different looks at the Red Storm. Redshirt sophomore Jana El Alfy<\/a> 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\u2019s other bigs navigate without her presence.<\/p>\n

Williams got going in the second quarter playing in the team\u2019s supersized lineup alongside Strong and freshman forward Blanca Quinonez<\/a>, scoring back-to-back layups after St. John\u2019s opened on four straight points. Sophomore guard Allie Ziebell<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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\u2019s a lot there,\u201d St. John\u2019s coach Joe Tartamella said. \u201cThey\u2019re healthy, they have depth \u2026 When they\u2019re firing on all cylinders, they\u2019re really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Huskies\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great group, and we can do a lot of different things, and our defense has been really, really good all season long,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cIf we stay, you know, in that mindset, then we\u2019ll have a chance (at a national championship), just like we want to do every year. We just want a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 For the first time since 2018, the UConn women\u2019s basketball team is headed into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[14628,6114,7,3426,217,2340,925,6108,2680,11893,14627,2679,1634,68003,231,772,1544,6115,6116,66,218,72511,923,6107,6112],"class_list":["post-634108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-ashlynn-shade","tag-azzi-fudd","tag-basketball","tag-big-east","tag-college-basketball","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-news","tag-geno-auriemma","tag-hartford-courant","tag-jana-el-alfy","tag-kk-arnold","tag-local-news","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-max-image-preview","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-sarah-strong","tag-serah-williams","tag-sports","tag-st-johns-red-storm","tag-st-johns-womens-basketball","tag-uconn-huskies","tag-uconn-womens-basketball","tag-womens-basketball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116158794522261138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}