Storrs — Before she began an interview session after practice Friday at Gampel Pavilion, UConn point guard Nika Muhl, one of the women’s basketball team’s eight available players, happened to mention she was tired.

Muhl played 38 minutes, 18 seconds in Wednesday’s 72-47 win over No. 21-ranked Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska, with only seven available players for the top-25 matchup. The Huskies got home from their trip close to 4 a.m. Thursday. They don’t have consecutive home games for the remainder of the regular season.

And yet on the court none of that shows.

“You just go. You just go,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “You don’t try to think too much into it. You don’t come to practice and feel, ‘Woe is me.’ You try to just ‘business as usual.’ The coaches are good about ‘There’s nothing different no matter what,’ and it’s been really helpful.“

No. 8 UConn (10-2 overall, 3-0 Big East Conference) meets Marquette in a New Year’s Eve matinee Saturday (2 p.m., SNY) at Gampel Pavilion.

The Huskies will still be missing forward Aubrey Griffin, who tested positive for COVID-19 at home over the Christmas break and guard Azzi Fudd (right knee), although Auriemma said both are closer to their return.

UConn brings back forward Amari DeBerry, who was caught in a travel delay in her hometown of Williamsville, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo, missing the game against Creighton.

This is what has shown on the court for UConn: An unrelenting energy, a fearlessness, four straight games with 20-or-more points from junior forward Aaliyah Edwards, who had 23 points and 20 rebounds against Creighton.

Part of it comes from Muhl, the sassy Croatian who is leading the nation with 9.9 assists per game. Muhl, who is the first UConn player to ever have six games in a season with double-digit assists, brings the Huskies their fire, although teammate Dorka Juhasz said it’s not fair to rely on Muhl all the time.

“I would say it’s definitely from each other,” Juhasz, a graduate forward said of the Huskies’ energy. “I would say having Nika on our team is definitely the No. 1 reason ... it definitely starts with her.

“But we can’t always rely on her to bring the energy. Just because we see her and we know how hard she works, how passionate she is, I think we all bring a little bit more this year. I think from the start of the season to now, more people chipped in. Especially having 6-7 players, that’s something we have to do.”

Juhasz said sometimes the energy in practice or at home comes from DeBerry, who averages just 9.3 minutes per game.

Juhasz said DeBerry FaceTimed the team from Buffalo to show them how much snow was on the ground there.

“She knows every single life fact,” Juhasz said. “She would talk about the beluga whales pregame. Like ‘How do you know these things?’ When I go home, I find her in the apartment drawing, painting. She’s always in good spirits. ... Her goofy energy, when we have our hardest days, she comes in our room and she just lights it up.

“Imagine if we would all be in our heads all the time? That would not be good.”

UConn spent much of last season dealing with illnesses and injuries, losing 2021 national player of the year Paige Bueckers for most of the season due to a knee injury. The Huskies, nevertheless, finished 30-6 with a trip to the national championship game in Minneapolis.

This year, before the season even started, UConn lost Bueckers and 6-foot-3 freshman forward Ice Brady for the season. Then, Azzi Fudd, averaging 20.6 points per game through the first seven games, went down with a knee injury which put her out for 3-6 weeks.

Juhasz also missed several games with a broken thumb.

“I’m not crazy about having to go through it again,” Auriemma said. “Maybe what happened last year kind of prepared them for this. I don’t know how you can be prepared when it keeps occurring but it does harden you a little bit. You can’t feel sorry for yourself. You don’t have time for any of that.”

The Huskies’ frontcourt duo of Edwards and Juhasz (22 points, 18 rebounds) led the way against Creighton, with the team finishing with 59 rebounds, the most in a game since 2018.

Marquette (9-4, 2-2) is led by Jordan King, who averages 15.3 points per game and shoots 42.9% from 3-point range. The Golden Eagles, under coach Megan Duffy, are coming off a 54-52 loss Wednesday against Villanova. King had 23 points and 11 rebounds.

v.fulkerson@theday.com