October 30, 2025

Southern Connecticut Women Fall to No. 1 UConn—But Win the Hustle Game

By Anthony Price 

Southern's Marisa Lee, #24, and Ally Sentance, #3, battle UConn. Photo: Sophia Close.

For the UConn women’s basketball program, it was business as usual. 
 
A UConn home game is a spectacle, like the Colosseum in Rome—a battle against the odds. They have a multimillion-dollar coaching staff (two former Huskies), a marching band, Jonathan the Husky, an army of workers on the payroll, and a fan base across the country who watch on television. 

​In an exhibition game of disparate opponents, UConn, the defending national champions and No. 1 team in the country, beat Southern Connecticut State University (unranked Division 2), 105-39, in front of over 9,200 fans at People’s Bank Arena in Hartford. 
 
After the game, the players formed a line at midcourt and exchanged high-fives. The UConn players were giants and walked with swagger, after scoring 46 points in the paint, 36 points off turnovers, and 25 fast-break points. It was total domination—but Southern viewed it differently. 
 
As the Southern players walked toward the locker room, their faces didn’t look deflated. They weren’t defeated. Quite the opposite. They were beaming with pride in the effort they put forth on this big stage, which included a television broadcast, UConn’s band, and a spirit squad. Even Jonathan, the Husky, was there watching. Not Southern’s typical game. 
 
Inside the locker room, they waited. Coach Lynch arrived wearing a cream-colored blazer, aqua-blue fingernails, and sneakers. When she closed the door, the room erupted with a thunderous roar—as if they had won their second national championship.   

I thought we did a lot of really good things. 

Jillian Martin watches as coach Kate Lynch writes down instructions. Photo: Sophia Close.

---

---

The Game Within the Game 
 
Lynch exited the locker room. She looked like she could be a Southern player. 
 
With a smile on her face and optimism in her eyes, Lynch said, “I thought we did a lot of really good things. For us, we are not focusing on the score.” Their goal was to hold UConn to 105 points or below—mission accomplished. “So that’s a win for us,” she said with a chuckle. 
 
Lynch, an ’08 Southern graduate, is in her 13th season as head coach of the Owls. She is a two-time All-American and the program’s all-time leading scorer at 1,779. 
 
In 2007, she led the team to its first and only DII NCAA national championship. Assistant coach Stephanie Hiriak Lund was on that championship team with Lynch and is now in her 10th season at Southern. 
 
Lynch’s focus was “the game within the game.” The team metrics that measured success for them included tipped balls on defense, offensive rebounds (the Owls grabbed 10 and UConn 11), defensive rebounds and taking offensive charges. “Those types of things were points in our scorebook,” she said. 
 
It was all about hustle and effort. 

“I thought we got out in transition a few times,” Lynch said. “And if we can get out [in transition] a couple times on UConn—and [we] scored a couple times too—imagine what we can do at our level? So, we really tried to focus on the things that we want to be good at this year, and even if they seemed like failures, they were not, in our eyes.” 
 
The UConn game has become something of a rite of passage at Southern—this is the second time in three years the teams have played. Southern lost 97-38 at Gampel Pavilion on November 4, 2023. 

I mean, UConn to me is the standard. 

Lynch played UConn on November 6, 2007, when she was on the team at Southern—a game in which she scored 16 points in a loss, 119-58, in Hartford, on a team that featured future Hall of Famer Maya Moore. 

“It’s an incredible experience to be able to step on the floor with the defending national champions, the number one team in the country,” she said. “I mean, UConn to me is the standard. “

The Players 
 
Senior guard Ally Sentance, from Thorold, Ontario, said, “Growing up, I was always a huge UConn fan. They were the team to look up to. I think that was a surreal moment.” 
 
When asked about the roar coming from the locker room, she said, “We did everything that we wanted to. We won morally, which is awesome. We did what we needed to do.  We were excited about it.” 
 
The game was more than the final score. “This was about us growing and playing together—this is our second game,” Sentance said.  “So, for us to put up almost 40 points—something like that—and the way we worked together, I think that was really awesome for us.”
 
When asked what she will take from this game into the regular season, she replied, “That we are very capable. That was a really, really good Division I team—obviously national champions.”
 
“If we can do stuff like that. Have them force turnovers, hit shots on them, do the things we did, and when we get to conference and Division II, we should have no problem with everyone, and we are going to win our conference,” Sentance said. “I’m really excited to see what we can do this season.” 

Senior guard Ally Sentance and UConn's Azzi Fudd make contact. Photo: Sophia Close.

Senior guard Hope Fox, a Guilford, Indiana native who shares an off-campus apartment with Sentance, played against UConn in her sophomore year. Three other players from that game are still on the Southern team:  Jillian Martin, Rheyna Steinauer, and Maya Henry. 
 
 “It’s an experience not many Division II women’s basketball players get to experience,” Fox said.  Just being on a big stage and representing Southern and our program—it means a lot to past players at Southern, and also the future.” 
 
“Yes, there is reason to be nervous about playing UConn: they are bigger, faster and stronger. Very skilled players. At the end of the day, it’s really just to have fun and compete at a very high level.” 
 
“It’s more of an experience—obviously, we know we are not going to win—but we are going to go out there and play our hardest. And even our coach said this, it takes a lot of courage to step out and play against UConn. Some DI schools don’t even want to play UConn.” 

Hope Fox is guarded by UConn's Sarah Strong. Photo: Sophia Close.

It might not have shown on the scoreboard, but we did win a lot of possessions on our measuring stick.

Southern focused on their “Hustle” stat line: They made note of UConn going under 10 seconds on the shot clock. They considered that a won possession. “Little things like that we kept track of,” Fox said. “It might not have shown on the scoreboard, but we did win a lot of possessions on our measuring stick. We did a lot of good things out there.” 
 
The program has ambitious goals for the 2025-26 season, following its appearance in the NCAA tournament last season and first-round loss. “Our goal this year is to make it to the Elite 8,” Fox said.  
 
Southern will remember this game for many years to come, and it may be the catalyst to achieving their goal of making a deep run in the NCAA tournament. 
 
Who would have thought a loss against UConn could be a win? The Owls from New Haven. 

###

Anthony Price is an entrepreneur, author and publisher of CT Hoops Magazine. Jump Ball Journal is basketball beyond the score.