No. 5 UConn women escape with 63-58 win over No. 21 Villanova

The XL Center crowd rose to its feet in a loud frenzy as Dorka Juhász drained a 3-pointer to give No. 5 UConn women’s basketball a three-point lead over No. 21 Villanova with under two minutes left in Sunday’s game.

The Huskies (20-2, 12-0 Big East), clearly fatigued in the midst of a stretch of four games in nine days with just eight players available, had trailed by six points earlier in the fourth quarter. But they took the lead and didn’t look back, holding strong in the final minutes to escape with a 63-58 victory over the Wildcats (18-4, 9-2 Big East).

This is UConn’s fifth win over a ranked opponent this season. The Huskies have won 13 in a row.

Aubrey Griffin led UConn with 19 points, along with six rebounds. Juhász finished with 16 points and seven rebounds while Aaliyah Edwards was also in double figures with 13 points and six rebounds.

Villanova star Maddy Siegrest finsihed with 25 points and eight rebounds. She opened the afternoon with a 3-pointer, but UConn went on a big run from there. With 7:05 left in the first quarter Juhász drained a 3-pointer to cap off the 9-0 run and give the Huskies a 9-3 lead. Griffin had four of the Huskies’ points during that span.

The Wildcats opened the second quarter on a 7-0 run, including a 3-pointer from Maddie Burke that made it a one-point game. The Huskies, looking a bit lethargic in their fourth game in nine days, couldn’t get a shot to fall until Griffin scored a layup out of a timeout to put UConn up 27-24 with 6:16 left.

Griffin played a big part in helping the Huskies stay ahead in the second. She got another bucket to go down low around a minute and a half later, putting UConn up seven points with Villanova on three-minute scoring drought. The Wildcats broke the drought after that, but Griffin responded with another basket in the paint right after.

But Griffin was called for her third foul after that and subbed out of the game with 3:27 left. At that point, she had scored all but two of UConn’s points in the quarter and was up to 12 on the afternoon.

The Huskies led 33-30 at halftime, after a layup from Nika Mühl was called off due to a shot clock violation. They committed 10 turnovers in the first half, leading to 10 points for the Wildcats, but shot 53.8% from the field. Siegrist had 11 points at the break, but only managed to shoot 3 of 12 from the field.

The third quarter began in similar fashion to the second, with Villanova going on a 8-0 run while UConn went scoreless for six and a half minutes.

Siegrist scored a layup and then drew a foul on Edwards as the shot clock expired shortly after that. She made both shots at the free-throw line to give Villanova a one-point lead. A jumper from Lucy Olsen with 5:46 left gave the Wildcats a 36-33 lead. By the first media timeout of the quarter around a minute later, UConn still hadn’t scored in the second half, going 0 of 9 from the floor.

The Huskies couldn’t get a shot to go from the field until Mühl scored a driving layup with 3:01 left, on their 11th attempt of the half. Juhász scored a layup after that, shortening the deficit to 40-39.

Still, UConn trailed Villanova 45-43 at the end of the third quarter. The Huskies shot just 3 of 14 (21.4%) from the field in the period.

With Siegrist leading the way, Villanova grew its lead to six points early in the fourth. But UConn wasn’t going away that easily. Edwards drove inside and used elite footwork to move around her defender and score a layup with just under seven minutes left, shortening the deficit to four points. Then with 5:44 left, Mühl brought the XL Center crowd to its feet when she drained a 3-pointer to make it a one-point game.

Griffin drew a foul less than a minute later and made both shots at the charity stripe to tie the game at 52. Griffin again came up clutch shortly after that. under four minutes left, she caught a pass from Mühl just outside the arc and drove inside, taking it all the way to the rim and drawing a foul in the process. The XL Center crowd went nuts as Griffin completed the and-one play with a shot at the free-throw line to give UConn the lead back, up 55-52 over the Wildcats.

Villanova tied the game off and-one play from Olsen less than a minute later. But then Juhasz drained a triple with 1:44 left, once again sending the home crowd into a frenzy with the Huskies up three. Edwards then made two shots at the stripe with under a minute left to extend the lead.

Following a UConn turnover, Olsen splashed home a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left to make it a two-point game. Edwards drew a foul on the other end but only made one of two shots at the line, making it a one possession game with 10.2 seconds left.

UConn held strong on defense the rest of the way and Edwards made two more shots at the line to escape with the win.

The Huskies are back on the road this Wednesday to face Providence. The game will tip-off at 7 p.m. on SNY.