Hartford — As long as you're going to do something no one else has ever done and then do it again for a second time, you might as well do it this way: in a fashion so effortless, so perfect, so dominant you even make the Hall of Fame head coach speechless.

"We played an amazing game of basketball," UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma said Tuesday night. "We played a game coaches aspire for their players to play. That's why I'm smiling. I want to go back and watch it. I want to see what it was like.

"I sat there that first quarter and didn't even know what to say."

Auriemma's team blitzed South Florida on Tuesday, 102-37, in what was UConn's 90th straight victory, tying its own NCAA record. That's the South Florida which is the second-best team after UConn in the American Athletic Conference, the South Florida that's ranked 20th in the nation.

UConn originally set the record of 90 during the 2010-11 season, beating Pacific for No. 90 on Dec. 28, 2010, 85-42 in Stockton, Calif. The Huskies lost their next game at Stanford on Dec. 30, 71-59.

UConn could break its own mark with No. 91 on Saturday at SMU in Dallas.

As for Tuesday's game?

UConn played with such precision it led 30-6 after one quarter, ending with a 13-0 run. In the midst of it, Napheesa Collier converted a three-point play, followed by a basket by Gabby Williams, started by a block on the other end by Williams and a pass back to Williams from Katie Lou Samuelson. Samuelson then scored on a play started by a steal from Collier, with UConn bringing the crowd to a buzz through sheer effort.

After the first quarter, Williams already had six points, five rebounds, three assists and four blocked shots.

UConn then upped the ante in the second quarter with 35 more points, shooting 72.2 percent — not a typo — and leading 65-19 at halftime.

Following the historic victory, before 10,109 fans at the XL Center who waved cardboard signs with the number 90 on them, a montage of former players congratulating Auriemma and the Huskies was displayed on the video board.

"The fact that it's happened twice, that's not a coincidence. That's not 'just talent,'" Williams said. "That says something about the program. For 90 games, we haven't taken a break."

Saniya Chong tied a career high with 20 points to lead UConn (15-0, 3-0), combined with eight assists. She and Samuelson each had four 3-pointers, as Samuelson added 19 points and four assists. Collier had 18 points, six rebounds and six steals, Kia Nurse 13 points and seven rebounds, Williams 11 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, four blocks and three steals and Natalie Butler 10 points and two blocks.

It was the largest win ever for UConn over a ranked team.

Auriemma, who has grown weary of trying to find new ways to describe his team's ongoing winning streak, joked he might not have come into the interview room to discuss it had it not been so impressive ... even to him.

"It really was more about the how the game went than whatever numbers were attached to it," he said. "We played like a team that's on a mission to do something that's important to them.

"I think that first 20 minutes tonight was kind of an indication ... that's as good of a 20 minutes of basketball as any of them has ever been a part of."

Nurse, a junior, described being a part of history as fun. She refuted Auriemma's recent comment about his players being "duds" emotionally.

"We're a group of fun-loving people," Nurse said with a smile. "We have great personalities. ... I think we do a really good job around here in terms of not putting ourselves in pressure situations."

This UConn team, which has won four straight national championships, graduated the WNBA's Nos. 1, 2 and 3 draft picks a year ago in Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck. This year's roster features only 10 players, but four of them have taken up leading by committee, paced by Samuelson with 20.1 points per game, followed by Collier (19.4 ppg), Nurse (13.6 ppg) and Williams (11.5 ppg).

Still, with seven games against ranked teams before Jan. 1, Auriemma honestly wasn't still expecting to be counting the numbers of a winning streak.

"You feel like very, very few people have ever been in this situation," Auriemma said. "For us to be in this moment twice, it's hard to describe. I don't know how long we can keep fooling 'em, but so far, so good."

v.fulkerson@theday.com