UConn weathers rare test before blowing out Vols in 2nd half

HARTFORD, Conn. — UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma had seen his team breeze through the first half of countless games this season. In 21 of their first 22 games, the No. 1 Huskies had gone into the break ahead by double figures.

That wasn’t the case Sunday when they hosted former rival Tennessee: UConn, the only undefeated team remaining in the country, trailed the Lady Vols by four at the 2:08 mark of the second quarter before knotting up the score at halftime 42-42.

And that’s just the way Auriemma liked it.

The Huskies responded to a rare display of adversity by throttling Tennessee in the second half, ultimately knocking off the No. 15 Lady Vols 96-66 to pass their final nonconference test of the regular season.

“I think had it been a 30-point lead at halftime, I would have been really, really disappointed,” Auriemma said. “You play these games to be really tested, to find out a little bit about what your team is made of. … It’s good that you have to kind of regroup and find yourself.”

UConn’s second-half outburst made for the largest margin of victory for either team in the series, which the Huskies now lead 18-10. It is also the second-worst loss in the Lady Vols’ NCAA history.

The Huskies now boast 18 straight wins by at least 25 points, the longest streak by a Division I team over the past 25 seasons. They also own a 39-game win streak spanning nearly a calendar year, with their last defeat coming at Tennessee in February 2025.

“The fact that last year they all felt like they played poorly so going into today’s game, there was a sense of, ‘We’ve got a job to do, we’ve got a game to play that means a lot more to us than just a regular-season game,'” Auriemma said.

Stars Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong combined for 53 points to lead the way for the Huskies, who shot 58% from the floor and 50% from the 3-point arc.

It was all UConn to start, as the home team jumped ahead 21-5 before the Lady Vols clawed back, outscoring the Huskies 23-17 in the second frame. Tennessee’s full-court press and physicality typical of SEC teams forced UConn to play too fast and into uncharacteristic turnovers — what Auriemma called a loss of identity on both sides of the ball.

“I think we just kind of got lax,” Fudd said. “Everything that they were getting were just mess-ups on our part, miscommunications, no communication, just little things, mental lapses.”

“In a big game, if it’s going bad, I’ve got to kind of reset them, and that’s what was happening,” Auriemma added. “We were playing so fast and so out of control. I hadn’t seen that this year, and we played some really good teams, so once we got our bearings at halftime, I think we kind of settled in.”

The Huskies scored the final four points of the half to gain the momentum before putting their foot on the gas to end the third quarter, where they used a 14-0 run to get separation for good.

In all, UConn outscored Tennessee 54-24 in the second half, turning the ball over only five times versus 10 times in the first half.

“It was really great for us to have to go through, and I also think the way that we handled it was phenomenal — I’m proud of that and how we came out,” Fudd said. “We were steady. We were calm. We played our basketball and we didn’t let their runs in the first half carry over into the second half.”

“That’s a really good team, and when you take plays off, they make you pay,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said. “If you lose sight of your man for half a second, they’re going to capitalize on it, and that’s why they’re doing what they’re doing right now.”