Storrs — First UConn mastered sentiment. The tear-jerker of a Senior Day ceremony prior to Sunday's game featured the Huskies' seven underclassmen escorting senior Dorka Juhasz to center court due to the fact her parents couldn't make it from their home in Hungary for the celebration.

UConn played the Hungarian national anthem in honor of Juhasz prior to the seventh-ranked Huskies' regular-season finale against Big East Conference opponent Providence before a sold-out crowd of 10,167 at Gampel Pavilion.

"Her national anthem started playing and I think a couple of us started crying," fellow UConn senior Evina Westbrook said. "I think that just shows how much we care for each other. It was definitely a super-cool moment for her."

Then the Huskies did pretty well with the basketball part, too.

Juhasz completed a Senior Day double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds in UConn's 88-31 victory over the Friars. Christyn Williams had 16 points, Azzi Fudd 14 and Olivia Nelson-Ododa 13 points and eight rebounds for the Huskies (22-5, 16-1), which had 10 players score.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma started the team's four seniors together, Juhasz, Williams, Nelson-Ododa and Westbrook, along with Paige Bueckers. Bueckers played in her second game since returning from a lengthy break due to injury and had two points and a team-high five assists in 13 minutes.

"I got really emotional," said Juhasz, a 6-foot-5 forward from Pecs, Hungary, who came to UConn this season as a graduate transfer after playing previously at Ohio State. "I was trying to hold myself together. (The underclassmen) came next to me, everybody was crying. I was like, 'Guys.' I just felt so loved. I didn't tell them to come walk with me.

"... And after that, looking up and seeing my flag up there and then playing the music, I was just battling with my tears."

UConn led 51-10 at halftime, its second straight game with a 51-point first half. The Huskies closed the first quarter with a 24-0 run and lengthened that to 29-0 in the opening moments of the second quarter with an inbounds play to Aaliyah Edwards and a 3-pointer by Williams.

Williams had three 3s in the second quarter and finished the half with a team-high 13 points. Nelson-Ododa had 11 points, Juhasz seven points and seven rebounds and Westbrook six rebounds in the half as the seniors went to work. One of Bueckers' assists came on a length-of-the-court pass that caught Williams in stride for a layup to make it 35-7.

UConn won its seventh straight game since a 72-69 loss to Villanova on Feb. 9 at the XL Center, a defeat that was a combination of playing poorly, catching Villanova on a night it couldn't miss and some fatigue, Auriemma said — "Since that game we've been different," he said. "We've had a different mentality, a different energy level."

It was the second second consecutive game, since the return of Bueckers — the All-American point guard and reigning national player of the year — that the Huskies had all 11 players available (junior Aubrey Griffin is out for the season after undergoing back surgery). Now, things are starting to come together for a team which has seen eight different players miss at least two games this season with illnesses and injuries.

"We knew there was going to come a point in time where we were going to click," Westbrook said. "We've been saying even when we were going through our little hell wave and everything was just not going the way we wanted it to, we kept on saying, 'It's gonna click. It's gonna click. It's gonna click.' And over this past week, two weeks, it's been clicking."

Auriemma, meanwhile, was pleased that after three straight seasons of interruptions due to COVID-19, the seniors finally were able to enjoy this moment on their home floor, fans and all.

"You can easily get frustrated and kind of feel like you were cheated a little bit of a certain expectation you had coming to UConn and it was going to be a certain way," Auriemma said. "What always made playing here so great was what you saw at the XL Center the last couple times we played there and what you saw today here at Gampel, that kind of environment, that kind of atmosphere."

Janai Crooms had 12 points for Providence (11-18, 6-14).

v.fulkerson@theday.com