Hartford — UConn won its 54th straight game Wednesday night, now giving the Huskies the three longest winning streaks in the history of women's basketball (tied with Louisiana Tech at No. 3).

The latest? Night after night of demolition derby, as evidenced by Wednesday's 106-51 laugher over American Athletic Conference opponent Central Florida before 8,523 fans at the XL Center, during which No. 1 UConn outscored the Knights 25-0 over one stretch of the first half and 15-0 again in the second half.

But an interesting note about this season's wrecking ball:

The Huskies (17-0, 7-0) have played several games without Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck, three of the best players in the country, due to injury. Tuck is expected to miss the next two weeks to give her surgically repaired right knee a rest.

But, the fill-ins are pretty good, too.

“They come to practice every day and they do the same things as everybody else does,” said UConn coach Geno Auriemma, whose team is bidding to win an unprecedented fourth straight national championship.

“They don't just come and stand on the sidelines and cheer. They're anxious to get those opportunities. We believe in them. 'The reason we recruited you to come here is because we think you're pretty good.'”

On Wednesday, Gabby Williams started in place of Tuck. Williams shot 9 of 11 for a career-high 19 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists in 21 minutes. Stewart led the Huskies with 21 points, five rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

Natalie Butler added 20 points, also shooting 9-for-11, Napheesa Collier had 14 points (7-for-10 shooting) and seven rebounds and Katie Lou Samuelson and Moriah Jefferson had 10 points each and combined for 12 assists (a team-high seven for Samuelson, the 6-foot-3 freshman).

UConn shot 65.7 percent in the second half, 60 percent for the game.

“When you have somebody like Morgan out, it's not ideal, obviously,” Auriemma said. “She's probably the most solid person on our team. Not having her in the lineup, it takes an adjustment; she does so much. Gabby was great. She was as good as she's been in practice all week.”

Auriemma said that Williams, a 5-11 guard, started the season with ease, but doesn't think she understood “why or how.”

“Teams start to catch up with that after a while,” Auriemma said.

Williams said she believes the changes in her confidence began in practice the last week and that she's finally learned not to worry so much about making a mistake.

“I started having really good practices. Today was my first game really testing the waters,” Williams said. “I was more focused on my finishing. It was one of my more aggressive games. … It started in practice and it just transferred over. I don't want it to be me holding myself back.”

Williams said she felt the last game Tuck missed, Jan. 8 at Houston (76-37 win), the Huskies didn't do as well filling in for her. Tuck is averaging 14.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

“My mindset every time is just to be a spark,” said Williams, who came into the game averaging 9.3 points per game. “There's a lot of little things I can do that don't take talent.”

Zykira Lewis led Central Florida (4-14, 1-6) with 20 points.

UConn led 52-15 at halftime.

The Huskies head out for a pair of conference games, Saturday at Southern Methodist in Dallas and next Wednesday at Tulsa, which because of the days off in between will constitute two separate road trips.

UConn owns the top two winning streaks in women's basketball at 90 (2008-11) and 70 (2001-03) and have now tied Louisiana Tech (1980-82) for third best with 54.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday