Hartford — No. 2 UConn began a brutal stretch that features the Big East’s best on Wednesday night.

The Huskies showed that they belong in a select group of league title contenders, responding to every challenge from Villanova, which came in with a five-game winning streak.

Riding a surge early in the second half, they created a cushion and held on for a 74-66 victory before a rowdy sold-out XL Center crowd.

Sophomore Jordan Hawkins powered the offense, scoring a team-high 22 points, and UConn’s relentless defense did the rest.

The Huskies (14-0) are off to a 3-0 start in league play for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

While the target grows on their back, the Huskies aren’t feeling any pressure.

They’re regularly reminded that they were left out of the preseason top 25 and resided in fourth in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll.

“Pressure is being 6-8,” coach Dan Hurley said. “There’s no pressure on us. We’ve got a good team. We’ve won our first 14. ... We’re taking the confidence from the 14-0 start but not the complacency from it.

“There’s posters all over our facility of where we were picked in the preseason and in the coaches’ poll. ... These guys know this team wasn’t ordained from the start and we’re earning every single thing we get.”

The meeting between two Big East powers had a big-game feel to it.

Fans lined up outside of XL Center over two hours before the game waiting to get in. The crowd began roaring from introductions and raised the roof on several occasions.

“Unbelievable crowd,” Hurley said. “This place was electric. It was cool to see from the walk over from the hotel for the pre-game at 5:15 to see all the UConn fans in the restaurants. ... Just the city buzzing hours before the game was pretty neat. This venue was a huge factor in us being able to get a tough Big East win.”

Villanova has controlled the league, winning or sharing seven of the last nine regular-season titles, in recent years. Veterans like Brandon Slater, Caleb Daniels and Eric Dixon all played on the Final Four team last season.

The Wildcats also have had the upper hand in the series, taking six of the last seven meetings prior to Wednesday.

With a mostly rebuilt roster, the Huskies are learning to win big games, even when they’re struggling offensively (shooting 39.6 percent) like they did on Wednesday. Junior Adama Sanogo had just seven points, well under his team-best 18.6 scoring average.

They relied on an aggressive defense, which forced 11 of 18 turnovers in the second half, to carry them to the finish line.

Reserve guard Hassan Diarra provided a spark on both ends of the court during key stretches and finished with six points, four steals and three assists.

“My mindset is I wanted to be disruptive and pick up my team with energy and defense,” Diarra said.

Daniels led the Wildcats (7-6, 1-1) with 23 points.

“UConn is a very good, talented, well-coached team,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “They came out and really made it tough defensively and tried to get after us and make it a tough, nasty game.”

The Huskies needed to make some clutch baskets down the stretch after a 10-point lead dipped to just two (58-56) with three minutes, 36 seconds left.

Sanogo powered inside for a basket. After UConn forced a turnover, junior Andre Jackson buried a 3-pointer from the corner, a shot that he had missed about a minute earlier, for a 63-56 lead with 1:58 remaining.

The Huskies hung on from there.

It doesn’t get any easier in upcoming games for the Huskies, who visit No. 22 Xavier Saturday, travel to Providence Jan 4 and then host Creighton on Jan. 7.

Wednesday’s game remained tight from start to finish with neither team leading by more than single digits except for when the Huskies grabbed a 49-39 advantage with about 12 minutes left.

After not trailing in the second half for the first 12 games, UConn fell behind after intermission for the second straight time. The Huskies rallied from a seven-point deficit to beat Georgetown on Dec. 2o.

Villanova came out after intermission and scored four straight points to seize a 36-33 lead.

UConn regained the momentum by cranking up the defensive pressure, forcing turnovers on three straight possessions to help fuel an 8-0 run that was capped off by a Jackson jam off a feed from Sanogo. The Huskies never trailed again.

UConn beat Villanova for the second straight meeting at the XL Center.

Early on, Villanova left UConn shooters open on the perimeter and basically dared them to fire away.

The strategy worked, as the Huskies missed their first six shots and made just two of their first 14 attempts.

Hawkins and redshirt freshman Alex Karaban (15 points) briefly ended one cold spell by hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 10-2.

But they seemed to forget about Sanogo, who got only a few touches down low with Dixon guarding him.

Villanova responded with a 10-0 run to take a 12-10 lead. UConn continued to misfire, making just two of its first 14 field goal attempts.

As they’ve done all season, the Huskies found a way to survive. Hawkins converted a four-point play to push them back in front.

More adversity hit when Sanogo went to the bench with his second foul at the 8:12 mark. Hurley reacted to the call in dramatic fashion and the crowd booed.

Hawkins kept UConn afloat, scoring 14 of his team’s first 26 points. His 3-pointer extended the lead to seven. He had 16 at the break.

The Wildcats weren’t going away.

For the second straight game, Jackson picked up a technical foul after burying a 3-pointer and apparently reacting in a way that the officials didn’t care for.

The Huskies still carried a lead into the locker room at halftime. They shot just 34.5 percent and took 20 3-pointers, making six.

Hawkins delivered big basket after big basket from the perimeter and added seven rebounds. He made a team-high four 3-pointers overall.

“My teammates did a great job getting me open tonight,” Hawkins said. “All credit to my teammates. It was hard to get the ball inside to Adama. They had a great game plan for him.”

g.keefe@theday.com