No. 1 UConn women hosts No. 25 Rutgers on Senior Day

March is finally here. This is what college basketball is all about.

The easy competition is over.  Every game now can be a struggle.  It is all about survive and advance.  This is the time of year where legends are made.

The final two regular season games for the No. 1 Connecticut women’s basketball team are against two NCAA caliber opponents. This afternoon, UConn (29-0 overall, 16-0 American) will host No. 25 Rutgers (21-6, 12-4) at Gampel Pavilion on Senior Day (4pm, CBS Sports Network). The Huskies travel to No. 3 Louisville on Monday night.

Seniors Bria Hartley and Stefanie Dolson will be honored in a pregame ceremony. Since both were named All-Americans during their career they will both be inducted into the Huskies of Honor.

Hartley and Dolson have had stellar senior campaigns and great college careers. Hartey recently joined elite company by being the third UConn player (Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore) to have 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists. Dolson enters today’s game is six rebounds shy of 1,000 for her career – she can become the fifth member of the 1,000 point/1,000 rebound club.

In addition to the final regular season home game at Gampel Pavilion, today marks an end of an era.  UConn and Rutgers had a fierce conference rivalry dating back to the late 1990s.  C. Vivian Stringer came to Rutgers wanting to make them the jewel of the east.  She made the Scarlet Knights relevant – NCAA appearances, Final Fours, Big East regular season and tournament titles, and wins against UConn. They gave the Huskies a run for their money in the Big East.

With Rutgers leaving for the Big Ten next season, today’s match-up may be the last between the two Hall of Fame coaches. Auriemma (868) and Stringer (924) have combined for 1,792 wins. However, Auriemma has had an edge in the overall series (31-6) against Rutgers.  The Huskies have won 11 straight games and are 18-1 at home. 

Most recently, UConn defeated Rutgers 94-64 on January 19.  Hartley scored a career-high 30 points while Breanna Stewart added 22 points and nine rebounds.  Dolson had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Rutgers was led by Tyler Scaife (22 points) and Kahleah Copper (20 points).

Overall, the Huskies survived their 6,000 mile, nine-day road trip and got some good news along the way.  Brianna Banks came back from ankle injury and provided the team with some depth and quality minutes.  In addition, there was word on late Thursday night that Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis participated in practice and may play today.

This past week, the Huskies swept their Texas road trip defeating both Houston 92-41 and SMU 81-48. Auriemma was not pleased with the first half performance against Houston last Saturday.  Despite winning by 51 points in a nearly empty arena, the Huskies struggled to be motivated in Auriemma’s 1,000^th game.  They regrouped at the half and UConn was lights out in the second half shooting 80 percent and went on to the easy victory.  Hartley and Dolson scored 24 points apiece to pace the Huskies.

On Tuesday, SMU played with UConn and kept things closer than their previous meeting earlier this month.  The Mustangs were playing in front of their largest home crowd at Moody Coliseum.  They played pretty good defense and kept within five points with four minutes left in the first half. UConn just went on a dominating 30-7 run that spanned the end of the first half into the first eight minutes of the second half.  Hartley and Stewart led the way with 25 and 23 points, respectively, in the 33-point rout.

If UConn wins today, they will win at least a share of the American Athletic Conference regular season title.  This will be their first regular season conference championship since 2011.  They can win the outright title on Monday night at Louisville.