ESPN News Services3 minutes of reading
UConn celebrates after capturing the Big East Tournament title
UConn won its 10th conference tournament title by defeating Villanova in the Big East Tournament Championship Game.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Aaliyah Edwards The No. 1 seed had 19 points and 15 rebounds in a 67-56 win over No. 10 Villanova in the Big East Tournament title game on Monday night. 7 led UConn to its 10th straight conference tournament title.
Dorka Juhasz Added 16 points and Lou Lopez Senechal Scored 14 for the top-seeded Huskies (29-5), who earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. UConn has now won 21 Big East Tournament crowns, including the last three since re-entering the conference in 2020.
Trailing 22-21 late in the second quarter, UConn turned on its defense and outscored Villanova (28-6) 13-2 over the final 6:09 to go up 34-24 at halftime. Edwards, the tournament’s MVP, scored 12 points, made six of his shots, and grabbed nine rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
The Huskies scored 22 of their first 29 points in the third quarter to extend the lead to 25.
It’s been a tough season for the Huskies, who have had a number of injuries to begin with Paige Beukers Tearing her ACL in the summer. UConn has been getting healthy lately Asi Palan Returned to the Big East Tournament after missing the previous 14 games with a knee injury.
Senechal and Edwards are the only UConn players to have been in every game this season.
The Huskies lost three conference games for the first time since 2011-12 and their first back-to-back loss in 30 years.
Despite a tough regular season, UConn has turned it on in March. Monday’s win was a rematch of last season’s championship game, which UConn won 70-40. As with the two regular-season meetings the Huskies won by five and nine, it was a more competitive half.
Villanova was cold from the field early, shooting just 6-of-25 (24%) in the first quarter and missing 10 of its 3-point attempts. Despite 10 offensive rebounds, the Wildcats trailed 19-14 at the end of the first. They finally hit a 3-pointer and went on an 8-2 run to open the second to take a brief lead. Then UConn took over.
Maddie Siegrist Led the Wildcats to No. 10 in Monday’s AP Poll for a school-best ranking with 22 points.
Siegrist has 984 points this season and is on pace to become the fifth player to score more than 1,000 in a season. The Big East Player of the Year will join Kelsey Plum (1,109), Jackie Stiles (1,062), Odyssey Sims (1,054) and Megan Gustafson (1,001). Siegrist led the nation in scoring average (29.7 points) entering Monday night. He extended his streak by scoring 20-plus points in 34 consecutive games. He was one short of Plum’s feat in 2016-17.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
