By Bob Phillips
UNCASVILLE—Playing without star forward
Aaliyah Edwards, who suffered a broken nose vs. Providence in the quarterfinals, it was time for sure-fire first team All-American
Paige Bueckers to take the reigns in the championship game—and boy, did she ever! The feisty spark plug from Edina, MN, scored 27 points and blocked five shots, leading the 10th-ranked Huskies to a resounding 78-42 victory over Georgetown before 7,918 delirious fans at the Mohegan Sun Arena. The Huskies, who have never dropped a conference tournament contest, captured their 22nd Big East Tournament title.
“A year ago I would have done anything to be in basketball shoes instead of street wear and to be playing in the most important month of basketball,” said Bueckers, who was sidelined with an ACL tear at this time last season. “I wanted to embrace it and have fun. I'm extremely grateful and happy to be playing basketball.”
It was the 29th title overall for the Huskies, who haven't lost in a conference championship contest since 2013, when Notre Dame beat them for the Big East Tournament championship. The tournament then was held in Hartford at the XL Center (then called the Hartford Civic Center).
UConn (29-5), which has been in 20 consecutive conference tournament championship games, has won all four titles since rejoining The Big East in 2020-21 after taking seven straight during its run in the American Athletic Conference. Coach
Geno Auriemma said this title was special with all the Huskies have been through this season. Five Huskies were out with injuries.
“I don't think any of them were quite as challenging for this team and these kids,” Auriemma said.
Georgetown, which was making its first championship game appearance in school history, ended the regular season at 22-11 (including the Big East Tournament) and already have the most wins since 2011-12 when they had 23 “W’s.” That was the last time the school made the NCAA Tournament. Despite making a run to the conference finals, the Hoyas are thought to be a long shot to be invited to the NCAAs this season due to an extremely weak non-conference schedule.
“I never thought we’d be in The Big East Championship; be a tournament team,” said Graceann Bennett, who paced the Hoya offense with 12 points. Members of the Georgetown staff wore pink for the championship game in honor of Tasha Butts, the Hoyas coach who died of breast cancer on Oct. 23. Her 42nd birthday would have been Sunday.
UConn played its signature hard-nosed defense throughout the tournament. In the semifinals, the Huskies held Marquette without a point for the final 14:49 of the game. It was the first time a team had been held scoreless for an entire period in Big East Championship Tournament history. In the title game on Monday night, the Huskies held Georgetown scoreless for the first 4:09 and took an11-0 lead before grad student Graceann Bennett put the Hoyas on the board. Georgetown continued to struggle on offense, as the Huskies' lead ballooned to 19.
Bueckers, voted the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament for the second time, had a four-point play with 1:24 left in the opening quarter that staked UConn to a 25-9 cushion. On the next possession, the Huskies swung the ball around the perimeter with all five players touching it before freshman K.K. Arnold nailed a three-pointer from the corner. UConn led 28-11 at the end of the first period.
The Huskies extended their lead to 44-15 midway through the second quarter before the Hoyas went on a 10-0 run, cutting the Connecticut lead to 19. Ashlynn Shade finally ended the Huskies scoring drought with a trey from the corner and the Huskies entered the locker room with a 22-point lead, 47-25, at halftime.
Play was briefly stopped in the third period when Bueckers took an accidental shot to the face resulting in a bloody nose. When she returned, she played a few minutes with gauze hanging out of her left nostrils to stop the bleeding. Bennett also had gauze in her nose from an earlier nose bleed before the half.
Both players were missing their post players.
Aaliya Edwards, who broke her nose against Providence in the quarterfinals, was sidelined for the second straight game. She is expected to return for the NCAAs—likely with a mask. Georgetown was playing without Brianna Scott, who hurt her knee with 1:13 left in the semifinal win over Creighton. She was on crutches and had a giant brace on her right knee.
Now it's simply a matter of sit around and wait. The Huskies will undoubtedly be invited to The Dance. The only question is how high they will be seeded. The answer will come on Sunday (March 17) when the NCAA will fill its bracket. ESPN projects a No. 3 seed for the Huskies in the Albany Region. Their first and second round games would be played in Storrs before moving on to Albany.
