UConn women’s basketball faces Georgetown for final Hartford game of 2025-26: How to watch

STORRS — Elated yells echoed through the halls of the Werth Family Champions Center on Wednesday afternoon as the UConn women’s basketball team concluded practice, bursts of celebration exploding as though players were hitting championship game winners every couple of minutes.

It was a sure sign that Huskies have rediscovered their energy with two games left in the 2025-26 regular season after spending several recent matchups in a fatigue-fueled slump. UConn hasn’t had more than four days in between games since it returned from its holiday break in late December, and as minor injuries piled up, an illness also ran through the team that exacerbated the exhaustion players were already fighting through.

The team trailed at some point in five of its last six games, including for a season-high 16 and a half minutes at Villanova on Feb. 18. Three of its four lowest-scoring performances in Big East play have come in the past two weeks, and it played its two closest conference matchups of the season back-to-back at Marquette on Feb. 14, then against the Wildcats. UConn’s 15-point win in Milwaukee ended a streak of 21 consecutive wins by at least 25 points.

But in recent days, coach Geno Auriemma is seeing the Huskies turn the corner and look more like the team that dominated every opponent in their path for the first three months of the year.

“As as couple of them have gotten under the weather a little bit, I noticed we were tired,” Auriemma said. “They look great now. They sound better, they feel better. Little by little, I think we’re getting back to where we were. I think we went through a spell where we were a little bit mentally and physically tired, and that’s par for the course for every team in the country. But I think we’re okay (now).”

UConn is also getting a boost from the return of freshman forward Blanca Quinonez, who made her first appearance at Villanova after missing six games with a shoulder injury. It’s been a process for Quinonez to settle back into the lineup after so much time on the sidelines, but she said she’s starting to feel like herself again. The freshman is UConn’s third-leading scorer coming off the bench, and the team often relies on her to heighten the energy when she checks in.

“I feel good physically, I’m just trying to (get) the rhythm back,” Quinonez said. “There’s a lot of pressure on trying to get back and trying to do the right thing, but I’m just taking it day by day, trying to work (hard) in practice and just do my best in games.”

UConn guard Blanca Quinonez (4) is guarded by Providence forward Teneisia Brown in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

It’s easier to find motivation as the Huskies begin checking off the ‘lasts’ of the regular season. The team celebrated Senior Day at its final Gampel Pavilion game until the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, and will host Georgetown for its last game at PeoplesBank Arena on Thursday night. UConn concludes the regular season Sunday against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden in New York, then gets a long-awaited break before it gets back on the court for the Big East Tournament quarterfinals March 6.

Auriemma said the coaching staff is intentional about breaking things down at this time of year to keep the team’s mindset as focused as possible. The first step is the Big East regular-season title, which the team secured with its victory at Villanova for a sixth consecutive season. Next is completing the program’s first undefeated regular season since 2018 by winning their last two games before postseason preparation begins.

“Things start to creep in that have not been an issue,” Auriemma said. “You don’t rebound the ball as well as you did earlier in the season, or you find that you’re standing around a lot on offense watching each other play basketball instead of playing 5-on-5 … But in terms of big changes, I really don’t like to do any of that. I don’t like to send a message to my team that what we did the first 29 games isn’t going to be good enough from here on out. This is who we are. This is what we do. This is how we play.”

While there’s a bittersweetness as the regular season comes to an end, the Huskies are beginning to feel the building anticipation of March around the corner. Auriemma said it’s almost impossible not to look ahead, even as he emphasizes a “one game at a time” mindset. In some ways, having something bigger on the horizon can help the team push through the final stretch.

“A much as you talk about, ‘Let’s keep the focus on the next game,’ the postseason is different and pretty special. It’s pretty significant,” Auriemma said. “With the excitement of the tournament and the hoopla and here come the brackets and all that, I think no matter what hurts or how fatigued you might have been, that goes away.”