Canada’s Aaliyah Edwards scored a career-high 28 points, Dorka Juhasz added a double-double and No. 2 seed UConn routed 15th seed Vermont 95-52 on Saturday, giving the Huskies a 29th consecutive win in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Juhasz scored 15 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, the Hungarian’s 13th double-double this season for the seventh-ranked Huskies.
Caroline Ducharme added 12 points, helping Connecticut (30-5) to its 26th, 30-win season during Geno Auriemma’s 38 years as coach.
Catherine Gilwee scored 14 points, while Emma Utterback and Maria Myklebust each had 13 for Vermont (25-7), which had its 17-game winning streak snapped.
UConn will play No. 7 seed Baylor on Monday. The Bears came back from an 18-point first quarter deficit to defeat Alabama 78-74 on Saturday night.
This was the fourth straight match the Huskies have had 10 available players, after spending much of the season with just seven.
Azzi Fudd (five points), who missed 22 games, including the final 14 of the regular season with knee injuries, made her first start since Dec. 4 and scored the first basket on a short jumper from the lane. That started a 7-0 run and the Huskies never trailed.
Edwards, a 20-year-old from Kingston, Ont., had 12 of her points in the first 10 minutes as the Huskies led 27-12 after a quarter.
“From the jump ball I knew personally, individually that I’d be able to dominate inside,” Edwards said. “And I think Dorka held her own too and I think we just flowed together as a team.”
UConn took its first 20-point lead at 32-12 and a fast-break layup from Aubrey Griffin made it 48-18. The Huskies shot 67 per cent over the first 20 minutes (62 per cent for the game) and it was 53-20 at halftime.
The Huskies extended that to as many as 46 in the second half.
