UConn women’s basketball downs Villanova, 67-46

UConn women’s basketball wrapped up its regular season slate at Gampel Pavilion with a 67-46 win over the Villanova Wildcats on Wednesday.

Paige Bueckers recorded back-to-back 30-point performances with 31 points on 11-15 shooting. Aaliyah Edwards was the only other Husky in double-figures with 14 points and also had 11 rebounds for her 16th double-double of the season.

Defensively, UConn held Big East leading scorer Lucy Olsen to just six points on a 2-16 day from the field.

UConn used an 8-0 run in the first quarter and a 9-0 spurt in the second to build a lead over double-digits. Neither side had much balanced scoring through the first 20 minutes: Bueckers and Edwards combined for 26 of the Huskies’ 35 points while Zanai Jones and Kaitlyn Orihel had 18 of the Wildcats’ 24.

Edwards drew seven fouls in the first half which put Christina Dalce — Villanova’s top big and the Big East’s leading rebounder — on the bench for all but three minutes. With that size advantage, the Huskies went into the half up by 11.

After the break, UConn started to deal with foul trouble of its own. Bueckers hit a three to give the Huskies their largest lead to that point at 16 but soon after picked up her fourth foul and went to the bench. Villanova responded to get back within 10 at the end of the quarter.

While Bueckers returned at the start of the fourth, that didn’t stop the Wildcats. Nova got as close as seven before UConn finally shut the door on the comeback. The Huskies scored six-straight points out of a timeout to go up by 13, which then prompted a timeout from Villanova. Out of that break, Bueckers hit two shots to make it a 17-point game and the Wildcats again used a timeout to try and stop the bleeding.

It didn’t work. UConn closed the game on a 16-2 run to pull away for the 21-point win.

The Huskies improve to 25-5 overall and 17-0 in the Big East. Next, UConn will finish the regular season with a trip to Providence on Saturday.