‘Just the physicality of it’: UConn played a UConn kind of game to beat Maddy Siegrist and Villanova

Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist, the leading scorer in NCAA Division I women’s basketball, should be a lock to be a first-team All-American, assuming voters at least have some access to Google and basic cable.

Siegrist does not, it turns out, have superpowers.

You saw it Saturday afternoon inside the Finneran Pavilion: Siegrist does not have the ability to automatically take on and overcome the full force of Connecticut’s defense for 40 straight minutes.

You thought this could happen, right? Maybe we all thought that could happen. The best player Villanova has had in a generation could stroll into a full building of support and overcome her sport’s most vaunted defense of modern times.

That’s UConn, of course. Whether winning NCAA titles or not, the Huskies tend to show up ready to play some D. This year’s Huskies, ranked sixth nationally, missing key players from injury, don’t look like a national title contender. They didn’t even look like the most talented team on this court. They still show up to play some D.

“I think they wear you down for sure,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon. “Just the physicality of it.”

Maybe Siegrist didn’t actually have to perform like a Marvel character, but this day, in front of 6,501 people, the first Pavilion women’s basketball sellout in almost two decades, Siegrist’s 21 points (tying a season low) on 8-of-22 shooting was not enough. Final score: UConn 60, 14th-ranked Villanova 51.

Afterward, Geno Auriemma said this isn’t his smartest team … but he also mentioned how one of his Huskies suffered a sprained ankle the day before in practice — “she played 37 minutes.”

“They are tough kids who play through their dumbness,” UConn’s coach quipped. “It’s a lot better than having geniuses who aren’t tough.”

Villanova’s kids? Plenty of toughness. If you were in there, you saw it. UConn doesn’t commit 22 turnovers on an empty court.

“I wasn’t out there, but it looked like a mosh pit to me,” Dillon said.

What ticked Siegrist off the most about this one?

“Just, I think, understanding what a special opportunity we had today — like, you know, there wasn’t a time until the last 20 seconds when I didn’t think we were going to win the game,” Siegrist said.

Dillon, who talked about how her players have bought into the defensive work, said it wasn’t that the shots they were getting were that much more contested than normal.

“Trying to get looks — just didn’t make them. Then the wheels were just turning,” Dillon said, speaking of getting a little tight down the stretch. Adding about how in the first half “we were getting looks, not making them. Then second-guessing a little bit. … In the halfcourt, you’re relying on Maddy a lot of times to bail us out, when other players are getting looks.”

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Siegrist said she felt like she was getting her normal looks. She had 10 points in the first quarter and shot 3-for-15 after that. She’s used to getting full attention. No surprise when a UConn defender is on her tightly, Aaliyah Edwards doing most of the heavy lifting, but another defender is there to cut off the baseline, a third ready to help off Siegrist’s other hand toward the lane. Life in the fast lane.

UConn guard Lou Lopez Sénéchal didn’t have the Siegrist assignment, talked about how UConn’s job was to double her as much as possible, to make her take shots over them, not open looks

That has to be the Siegrist game plan for every team. The UConn guard then added — also try to eliminate her rebounds.

That was crucial. Siegrist had zero offensive rebounds. Villanova only had five as a team.

“We’ve certainly played against her long enough, and watched her do the things that she does,” Auriemma said. “You have to get a little bit of help when you’re playing against a player like that because if you crowd her too much, then she gets in the lane and ends up getting a bucket and free throws. If you play off too much, she’s a good enough three-point shooter that she’ll make just enough to hurt you.”

To the rebounding point …

“The thing about Maddy that’s really, really difficult,” Auriemma said. “She’s kind of relentless when the ball’s up on the glass. So when she shoots it — most [defensive] players relax. ‘I got my player to take a bad shot.’ You turn around, she’s back on the rim with the ball before the other kid even realizes it. So there’s a lot you have to do. We just took our chances. We said we’re not going to help off her. Whatever she gets, she gets, but it can’t be easy.”

When Siegrist airballed an open three-pointer from the top of the key with Villanova down four points, 2 minutes left, it was obvious, this game had taken just enough of its toll.

The place was packed and as loud as any Villanova men’s game over recent years, and the stakes huge, the Wildcats trying to tie the Huskies at the top of the Big East, and also trying to all but lock up a chance to host the opening two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

When that did not happen, Siegrist didn’t try to hide how ticked off she looked. She’s not a superhero, just an enormously talented human being who does a lousy job of hiding how much she hates to lose.