Mohegan — Aaliyah Edwards, despite UConn's newly aligned deep, nine-player rotation, was making it difficult for coach Geno Auriemma to take her off the floor Monday night.

For one stretch at the end of the third quarter, she had a hand in everything. She sparked a 15-3 UConn run to essentially put the Big East tournament championship away by either scoring or assisting five of the Huskies' field goals during that sequence, with the team going from an 11-point lead to 23.

"When you have choices, you sometimes feel like you have to use all those choices," Auriemma said of leaving an energized Edwards on the floor. "But just because you have choices, that doesn't mean you're just going to use them just to use them. You still have to go with what works.

"Aaliyah, this whole tournament, was a real disrupting factor defensively and rebounding-wise. She just gives us something that (forwards) Dorka (Juhasz) and Liv (Nelson-Ododa) don't. And they give us something that Aaliyah doesn't. So it's a great combination of the three. You've just got to go with which one has got it going at that particular time. (Edwards) had it going this whole tournament."

Auriemma has spoken about this team, which beat Villanova 70-40 for its 20th Big East tournament title, as looking like the "UConn of old," with its depth and depth of character, as well as a forceful defense.

Now, the Huskies have the Aaliyah Edwards of old, too.

Edwards, a 6-foot-3 sophomore forward from Kingston, Ontario, was the Big East Sixth Woman of the Year and a member of the league's All-Freshman Team last season. She played for the Canadian Olympic Team at the Tokyo Games and was named an All-Big East preseason first team selection.

But somewhere, Edwards lost what made her so impactful a season ago, a flash of gold and purple braids — which she wears in honor of the late Kobe Bryant — helping will the Huskies to their 13th straight Final Four, perhaps bowling over a few opponents along the way.

In a loss at Georgia Tech, immediately following the injury to fellow sophomore Paige Bueckers a few days prior, Edwards went scoreless, one of three games this season she failed to score.

Then came a top-10 matchup against Tennessee on Feb. 6 when Edwards had 14 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and a steal in 37 minutes. Two games later, she added 19 points in a key win over DePaul which preserved UConn's streak of more than 1,000 games without back-to-back losses.

Fast forward to this weekend. Edwards finished Monday's championship game with 12 points, six rebounds (five offensive), two assists and two steals in 31 minutes. She came off the floor for the final time with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining to a standing ovation and was named to the all-tournament team.

Edwards, back to the starting lineup, back to the dervish she always was, is unable to pinpoint when she snapped out of her funk.

"I think for me it's the Tennessee game. Around that time," Edwards said. "It was maybe about three weeks into the rest of our season. I may not have been producing as well as I know I can. But going into the end of the season, I just knew I had to be more impactful and aggressive for my teammates and to carry that over into the postseason."

"I think it could have been anything," Auriemma said, asked the same question, to identify the moment Edwards flipped the switch into being Edwards again. "You look around and you see that Dorka's playing well and that we can play with four guards a lot of times which we couldn't before or maybe she just was disappointed in herself like, 'Hey, I should be a lot better than I am.' Or maybe it was getting left off any of the Big East first or second team or any of that stuff."

Edwards is averaging 7.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. She had 11.3 points and 8.0 rebounds per game in the Big East tournament sweep for the Huskies (25-5), ranked sixth in the nation and headed to the NCAA tournament healthy and whole.

On Monday, Auriemma stopped Edwards on her way to the bench and spoke to her for a moment.

"I think I just kind of reminded her again about, and it's not the first time, reminding her again that for us to be the team we can be, she has to be that every night," Auriemma said. "... It could have been anything (that turned it around); all I know is there's been a huge difference in her approach and the way she's played."

• UConn senior Christyn Williams was named one of five finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, which recognizes the top shooting guard in Division I college basketball. Williams averages 14.6 points per game, shooting 47.4% overall and 37.1% from 3-point range. She was named the Big East tournament Most Outstanding Player on Monday, as well as earning All-Big East first team recognition in the regular season.

The other four finalists are Sonya Morris (DePaul), Kierstan Bell (Florida Gulf Coast), Taylor Mikesell (Ohio State) and Taylor Robertson (Oklahoma).

v.fulkerson@theday.com