Storrs — It wasn’t exactly what was expected Monday night at Gampel Pavilion.

One more chance for Lou Lopez Senechal and Dorka Juhasz to play in front of of a sold-out home crowd. A formality to put the finishing touches on the Big East Conference regular-season championship against last-place Xavier.

None of that.

Ninth-ranked UConn did beat Xavier 60-51 to wrap up the Big East title, the 29th regular-season championship in program history.

But as the tenor of an injury-prone season would dictate, the Huskies did so without Juhasz (ankle injury), while watching starter Aaliyah Edwards crash to the floor just 40 seconds into the second half (she returned) and with Lopez Senechal knocked down on consecutive plays in the third quarter (she received a technical foul after exchanging words with a Xavier opponent).

UConn coach Geno Auriemma said he hasn’t been able to predict what the Huskies will do lately — “I think they’re going to cut right, they cut left,” he said.

Auriemma, in fact, had a lengthy critique of his team during his session with the media, calling his players selfish and saying that they compete, at times, as if they’re poorly coached.

The Huskies committed 17 turnovers and trailed in the second quarter against Xavier, which finished the regular season winless in the Big East at 0-20.

“It’s time we stopped blaming injuries, stop blaming fatigue, stop blaming tired,” Auriemma said. “We used that long enough. That story sailed. Now it’s just being held accountable for doing what you’re being coached to do, not what you feel like doing.

“I’m tired of the fatigue thing (UConn again had eight available players Monday without Juhasz). I’m tired of ‘we’re hurt.’ I’m tired of all that. We don’t speak on defense. We don’t communicate. That’s got nothing to do with being tired or being injured; it has a lot to do with selfishness and a lot of you don’t want to change.”

Edwards finished with 19 points and eight rebounds, Caroline Ducharme 14 points, including three 3-point field goals, and Lopez Senechal 12 points for UConn (26-5, 18-2), with Ducharme in the starting lineup in place of Juhasz.

Junior point guard Nika Muhl finished with seven assists, becoming UConn’s all-time single-season assists leader with 236, breaking the mark of 231 set by program great Sue Bird during the 2001-02 season.

Muhl assisted UConn’s first three baskets, two by Ducharme and one by Lopez Senechal, to eclipse Bird, the record-breaker coming on a 3-pointer by Ducharme with 5:52 remaining in the first quarter.

Muhl, who entered the game ranked second in the country with 7.9 assists per game, was named earlier in the day as one of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award as the nation’s top point guard.

UConn trailed Xavier 22-20 on a layup by the Musketeers’ Courtney Prenger with 8:11 to play in the second quarter.

After a UConn timeout, though, Edwards hit a jump shot to tie it and Aubrey Griffin scored to put the Huskies back in front. Edwards hit one of two free throws and Griffin scored assisted by Edwards.

The Huskies outscored Xavier 16-2 to end the half, including back-to-back 3-point field goals by Lopez Senechal and a layup by freshman Ayanna Patterson to beat the buzzer, giving them a 36-24 lead.

UConn led by as many as 18 following a 3-pointer by Ducharme and a follow-up three-point play also by the sophomore that made it 44-26.

With the Huskies up 46-30, Lopez Senechal was knocked to the floor on an offensive set, drawing a protest from Auriemma to the officials, and Lopez Senechal was again sent sprawling on her way down the floor on defense. That resulted in an offensive foul on Xavier’s Taylor Smith and also a technical on Lopez Senechal for her reaction.

Mackayla Scarlett made both technical free throws and a basket by Shelby Calhoun pulled the Musketeers within 46-34. UConn’s Edwards responded with eight points in the fourth quarter to help keep Xavier at bay.

Prenger scored with 42 seconds remaining to pull the Musketeers back within single digits. Coming into the game, Xavier was losing its Big East contests by an average of 20.4 points per game.

“Xavier is a lot better than our guys wanted to give them credit for. That’s how immature they are,” Auriemma said. “They want to get ready for DePaul (last Saturday in Chicago) because they think DePaul is really good, but they could care less about Xavier because Xavier isn’t supposed to be any good. They looked pretty good to me.”

“(The Big East title) is what we want at the end of the day,” Lopez Senechal said. “Even if it’s been a very tough season and a tough stretch in the last couple weeks, at least we find a way to at least get it. I think that’s most important. It’s more satisfying than not getting it. But like we always say, we’re not done and we have to work on a lot of things.”

Lopez Senechal, a 6-foot-1 guard/forward from Grenoble, France, and Juhasz, a 6-5 forward from Pecs, Hungary, who have both become UConn staples, were honored prior to the game, escorted to center court by their parents.

The French and Mexican national anthems were played in honor of Lopez Senechal, who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the Hungarian anthem for Juhasz in the ceremony to honor the pair of graduate transfers. Lopez Senechal previously played at Fairfield and Juhasz at Ohio State.

UConn, the top seed in this weekend’s Big East tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena, will play its quarterfinal game at noon Saturday against the winner of an opening-round game between No. 8 Butler and No. 9 Georgetown.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

BIG EAST TOURNAMENT

At Mohegan Sun Arena

Friday’s Games

First Round

Game 1: No. 8 Butler vs. No, 9 Georgetown, 11 a.m.

Game 2: No. 7 DePaul vs. No. 10 Providence, 1:30 p.m.

Game 3: No. 6 Seton Hall vs. No. 11 Xavier, 4 p.m.

Saturday’s Games

Quarterfinals

Game 4: No. 1 UConn vs. Game 1 winner, noon

Game 5: No. 4 St. John’s vs. No. 5 Marquette, 2:30 p.m.

Game 6: No. 2 Villanova vs. Game 2 winner, 7 p.m.

Game 7: No. 3 Creighton vs. Game 3 winner, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday’s Games

Semifinals

Game 8: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 3 p.m.

Game 9: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 5:30 p.m.

Monday, March 6

Final

Game 10: Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.