UNCASVILLE, Conn. — For the third time in six seasons, UConn and Villanova will face off for the BIG EAST Tournament crown as the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively. It will be their third meeting this season, with the No. 1 seed Huskies sweeping the No. 2 seed Wildcats in their two regular-season matchups.
While UConn dominated the January meeting in Storrs, winning 99-50, Villanova challenged the Huskies in their February contest. The Wildcats were the first, and remain the only, team to hold a halftime lead against the undefeated Huskies this season, before UConn ultimately pulled out a 14-point victory.
Here’s how both teams fared on Sunday to reach Monday’s final.
UConn’s depth stifles young Creighton team
Behind trademark performances from UConn’s three BIG EAST first-team selections — Sarah Strong (23 points, seven rebounds, six steals, three blocks), Azzi Fudd (16 points, six assists, three steals) and KK Arnold (18 points, four assists, two steals) — the Huskies bulldozed Creighton, 100-51. The win earned UConn a ticket to its sixth-consecutive conference championship game.
“In talking to [UConn head coach] Geno [Auriemma] before the game, I said, ‘You guys are just so deep and so disruptive,'” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery told reporters. “So, yeah, we were never in the game. They made threes. And so … it’s easy to say we didn’t have a prep, but I don’t know that it would have made a difference. There’s a big gap between where they are and where we are at this point.”
Though a rematch of last season’s conference tournament championship game, two very different teams took the floor for Sunday’s semifinal, especially for Creighton. The Bluejays’ core contributors from last season were replaced by six true freshmen. The freshman class is talented — Flanery brought in BIG EAST first-team selections Ava Zediker and local Omaha standouts in twins Neleigh and Norah Gessert — but the team is young and inexperienced in a college basketball setting.
“I feel like this team has been really fun to coach. It’s state tournament time in high schools, right? The Nebraska state tournament ended yesterday, and these guys were playing in high school state tournaments, you know, 52 weeks ago. Today, they’re guarding Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd and KK Arnold and, you know, that’s a big leap.”
Not only is this year’s Creighton team less experienced than last year’s squad, but UConn has also added significant depth. This allows the defending national champions to throw a barrage of players at their opponents, something Zediker described as “people flying at you at all different angles.”
Though UConn has beaten its opponents by an average of 37.8 points per game and is undefeated (compared to last season’s team that lost three games), Auriemma doesn’t subscribe to the narrative that his team is “better” than it was last year with Paige Bueckers, the 2025 WNBA Draft first overall pick.
“I’m not of the opinion that we’re better. We’re different,” Auriemma said. “So there is no, ‘Are we the same, are we better, are we worse?’ We’re different, and we play a different style of play than we played last year. The results seem to be kind of, sort of, the same as they were last year, just a different way about going about it.”
From where he sits, Flanery is inclined to disagree, emphasizing that UConn’s increased depth this season has made them an unstoppable force.
“In watching them early, all the way through the year, I kept going, ‘God, they’re better than last year.’ … I just feel like they’re even more disruptive defensively because of the depth and experience … I don’t want to disagree with Geno, but I feel like they’re maybe better [laughing].”
Villanova surges past Seton Hall
Both Villanova and Seton Hall had less than 24 hours to prepare for their semifinal matchup, but the Wildcats didn’t skip a beat. Villanova ran out of the gates with a 12-0 run, led by 7 points from sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe — whose hand was still hot from Saturday’s 31-point performance.
“I think that’s a really big energy boost and kind of gets everyone’s confidence going,” Villanova junior forward Brynn McCurry said about the Wildcats’ run to start the game. “It’s obviously a little bit nerve-wracking stepping out on the court in this environment in such an important game, and we do have a young team, so trying to give the young ones the confidence they need to start off strong, and that just kind of led throughout the game.”
McCurry led all scorers (16 points), joined by Bascoe (15 points) and senior forward Denae Carter (11 points) in double-figure scoring en route to a 62-48 win over the Pirates.
Looking ahead to the Huskies, Villanova head coach Denise Dillon knows that her team will have to be at their “absolute best” to compete. Though her team beat UConn in the first half in their February match, Dillon knows that’s not enough to defeat an undefeated juggernaut.
“They had a taste of it. We got to do it for four quarters. Can’t do it for a half,” Dillon said.
The Wildcats take to the court with a chance to not only compete for a conference tournament title, but also to boost their resume for the NCAA Tournament. Currently projected as a No. 10 seed, Monday night’s game is a chance for Villanova to make its case for a higher seed. Dillon believes her team has done enough to impress the committee and secure her program’s return to the NCAA Tournament after a two-year hiatus.
“We certainly put together a challenging schedule for nonconference, just to prepare us for the BIG EAST, to put ourselves in the conversation for March Madness and national contention,” Dillon told reporters. “That’s what the standard is, that’s what we want, and [we] have the players here who can do it.”
