No. 1 UConn women’s basketball completed its final nonconference test of the regular season with a 96-66 rout of No. 15 Tennessee at PeoplesBank Arena, but in head coach Geno Auriemma’s view, the scoreline was secondary — the real takeaway was how his team handled being tested. The undefeated Huskies encountered fierce resistance but took charge in the second half with a suffocating onslaught.
Through UConn’s first 22 games, the Huskies had reached halftime with double-digit leads in 21 of them. Against the Lady Vols, that trend ended. After jumping out to a 21-5 advantage in the opening seven minutes and leading by as many as 16 in the first quarter, the Huskies let Tennessee back into the game. The Vols outscored UConn 35-15 over a 12-minute stretch bridging the first and second quarters, using constant substitutions and full-court pressure to force turnovers and speed the Huskies up. Tennessee led by four late in the second quarter, but UConn closed the half with the final points to enter intermission tied 42-42, the Huskies’ first halftime tie of the season.
“I think had it been a 30-point lead at halftime, I would have been really, really disappointed,” Auriemma said postgame. “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.”…