Storrs — Amid Monday night's accomplishment (the 23rd straight trip to the Sweet 16) and its sentiment (the final game at Gampel Pavilion for some exemplary seniors), there was also a little history, too.

As in: Has there ever been another time when a group of people — including Breanna Stewart throwing her body on various parts of the playing surface all night — worked so hard for a trip to ... wait for it ... Bridgeport?

Alas, that's where the No. 1 women's team in the land will spend Easter weekend. The UConn Huskies dispatched Duquesne, 97-51, and are on their way to the regional semifinals at Webster Bank Arena on Saturday. UConn will play fifth-seeded Mississippi State at 11:30 a.m.

The final game at Gampel for Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck began with some turbulence but ended the way most other games here did: without incident.

And fittingly, they finished as UConn's three leading scorers. Stewart was particularly magnificent, finishing with 21 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots, earning several ovations from the crowd for her effort. Jefferson's first six field goals were 3-pointers en route to 20 points, while 12 of Tuck's 20 points came in the first half when the offense sputtered for a while.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma removed the three of them for the final time on their home court with 5:49 remaining to a warm ovation.

"I've been saying this pretty much all year. Whenever the games get bigger and the stakes get higher, our three seniors play even better than they normally play and they play great most of the time," Auriemma said. "Today was just a magnificent performance by the three of them. Really something to see. The way they feed of each other, instill confidence in their teammates. They've grown up so much. It was a perfect way to end this part of their career. Really perfect."

Stewart: "We wanted to make sure our last game at Gampel was a great one."

Before the tournament began, Auriemma offered a theory on UConn's future success: If defense is a constant, margin of victory would be determined by how many shots his team makes.

He was proven correct in the first half.

His defense was a constant, holding Duquesne to 24 percent shooting overall and seven points in the second period. The game was close for much of the first half because of UConn's unusual shooting disorder, its percentage in the low 30s for a while. UConn led by but three, 20-17.

But by the time the half ended and more shots began falling, the lead was 42-21.

Connecticut didn't score for the first 3:40 of the second period. The Huskies finally scored ... and didn't stop. They used a 19-2 run to take a comfortable lead and punctuated the end of the period with Stewart's rebound basket, following a lob to her on an inbounds play.

Duquesne (28-6) hit an occasional three, including three of them from guard April Robinson, but had few other answers for UConn's defense. Stewart blocked three shots in the same possession at one point. Duquesne followed that with a shot clock violation that had the UConn bench roaring.

"We fell to a much better team, the most dominant team in the world," Duquesne coach Dan Burt said. "We gave it everything we had. The Mike Tyson quote, 'everybody's got a plan till you get punched in the face.' In that second quarter, we got punched in the face. ... They wear you down. The way they play is something we aspire to."

m.dimauro@theday.com