UNCASVILLE – There were glimpses of it. Fleeting, tantalizing flashes.
Of Serah Williams’ scoring brilliance and Blanca Quiñonez’s terrorizing on-ball pressure. Of Kayleigh Heckel and KK Arnold’s splash play ability and Allie Ziebell’s never-ending range from behind the line. Of them all, for perhaps the first time this season, working concurrently.
It was UConn women’s basketball’s scariest form.
And it showed itself – albeit for only half a quarter at its peak – in UConn’s (32-0) 84-39 annihilation of Georgetown (14-17) Saturday in the Big East Tournament Quarterfinal.
The Huskies, spurred on by their most well-rounded effort of the 2025-26 season, ripped off a 22-1 run in the middle of the first quarter to bury the Hoyas in their own mess of turnovers and missed defensive assignments in the 45-point drubbing.
“They’re playing like they’re on a mission,” Georgetown head coach Darnell Haney said bluntly post-game. “Like they have something to prove.”
There isn’t a Husky with more to prove than Williams, who, since transferring from Wisconsin with All-American caliber numbers under her belt, hasn’t exploded as frequently as she (or Geno Auriemma) would’ve liked.
Williams rattled off eight of the Huskies’ first 10 points, all of which were contested looks at the rim. The venerable senior center finished with a season-high 14 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-8 shooting from the field.
“I wish I could say it was a light bulb switch,” Williams said. “But I think it’s just me coming in every day in practice and in every game and just trying to be my best.”
Williams also notched two blocks and stole a ball in what quickly became her best performance in a Husky uniform – a string of words that’s been repeated nearly every game since the start of February.
“If this is the Serah Williams we’re going to have for the next three or four weeks,” Auriemma admitted with a wry smile, “this is pretty good for us.”
After Georgetown scored the game’s first four points and stopped Connecticut on its first two possessions, the Huskies unleashed their vaunted full-court press to stymie all Hoya momentum. Ziebell, Arnold and Ashlynn Shade worked in conjunction to bottleneck Georgetown’s ball handlers, forcing turnovers on three consecutive possessions that all ended in Husky points.
A barrage of Azzi Fudd 3-pointers and wide-open looks for Sarah Strong under the basket on the other end forced a Hoya timeout at the 6:40 mark of the first quarter. But the damage had already been done.
Quiñonez ran the rims for the remainder of the first half while Heckel and Ziebell hounded Hoya inbounders from baseline to baseline. Fudd set the net on fire while Strong rubbed off screens for east looks at the rim. Connecticut could do no wrong.
UConn had separated itself by the end of the first half, building a 29-point lead that it’d never surrender. But Arnold, the tip of the Huskies’ vaunted defensive spear, still wasn’t satisfied.
“[We need to see] the things that we practiced in our practice, the way that we practice just really all come together during game time,” Arnold said. “I feel like we’ll all know when that happens.”
It’s hard to think that the Huskies could be fundamentally better than they were Saturday; the 46-point curb stomping kept Fudd and Strong on the bench – and cheering vehemently – for the entirety of the fourth quarter as the end of the bench was emptied onto the Mohegan Sun Arena floor.
Eleven of the 12 Huskies who checked into the game scored. The lone exception was Shade, who dished five assists and grabbed a pair of rebounds.
“Going into the season, I thought it would be a real struggle to get through it,” Auriemma said. “Because I knew there was not going to be equal playing time, and when you have a lot of players that think in today’s world that everybody should get the same amount of playing time, same amount of shots, I was anxious to see how long will this last that everybody’s happy, happy, happy to just be winning. To be honest with you, it’s been like this the whole season.”
The Huskies will face Creighton, the No. 4 seed, in the Big East Semifinal Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The Bluejays downed Marquette 57-44 in the second quarterfinal game of the afternoon and have won four in a row after back-to-back losses to Connecticut and Villanova last month.