At 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack knew her team was in trouble. As the Orange went through shoot-around ahead of their second-round matchup with UConn at Gampel Pavilion, she sensed fear from her players.

Everywhere they looked, they were reminded of who they were about to face. In one corner, signs listed the Huskies’ greatest achievements in big, bold letters: 12 national championships, 32 Sweet Sixteens, 29 Elite Eights, 24 Final Fours, 31 regular season conference championships, 30 conference tournament titles. On the other side of the video board, the Huskies of Honor displayed some of the greatest names ever to play the sport. Above the court hung all the national title banners.

Suddenly, Syracuse wasn’t going up against Sarah Strong, Azzi Fudd and the rest of the 2025-26 Huskies in the flesh. Breanna Stewart, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi and everyone else from the illustrious history of the program took up residence in the minds of the Orange.

“I couldn't simulate what we were going to face and I recognized that in shoot-around,” Legette-Jack said. “I saw the distraction. I saw the looks in seeing all those Final Four championships. I saw the weight go on the back of those young ladies, to the point where they couldn't make free throws.”

Syracuse had already lost before the opening tip-off. UConn, meanwhile, came ready to play.

That combination led to a first half for ages. The Huskies eviscerated the Orange in the opening 20 minutes, building a 53-point lead behind a 31-0 run that held the visitors scoreless for over 10 minutes. UConn piled up 65 points behind 26 from Azzi Fudd, 14 from Sarah Strong and 13 from Blanca Quiñonez. Syracuse only managed 12 points combined.

In the first two quarters, the Huskies made 27 shots. The Orange attempted just 25. UConn didn’t allow a single 3-pointer, forced 16 giveaways and turned nearly every one into a basket with 30 points off turnovers.

“That's the best half of basketball, the best 20 minutes that I've seen in a long, long time from our team,” Geno Auriemma said afterwards. “Not just this team — it's happened other times — but this is about as good as it gets.”

“Everything that we've worked on all season clicked together at the same time,” Kayleigh Heckel added.

At halftime, the coach walked into the locker room, looked around and just laughed, according to Ashlynn Shade. He didn’t need to say a whole lot.

“There wasn't much to talk about,” Auriemma said. “There wasn't a lot of adjustments that we needed to make. There weren't concerns that we had going into the second half.”

On the other side, ESPN’s Holly Rowe reported that a few Syracuse players returned to the court for the second half in tears.

“Against a team like UConn, you can't come out like that,” Sophie Burrows said.

The Huskies got contributions from everyone. Fudd exploded with her most points ever in a half en route to a career-high 34 points to cap off her final game at Gampel Pavilion. She finished with a team-high five assists and four steals, too. Strong scored seven of UConn’s first nine points on her way to 18 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Blanca Quiñonez was a force off the bench and wreaked havoc on the defensive end with two blocks and two steals.

“This is the best I've seen her defensively. She was really active and really smart, made really great decisions,” Auriemma said about the freshman. “She's a terrific basketball player that just needs time to get acclimated to all this. But for someone who's only been here a short while, I thought handling this part of the tournament so easily was pretty impressive.”

Meanwhile, Serah Williams shut down Syracuse star Uche Izoje. The freshman phenom started 0-3 from the field, hit two contested jumpers in quick succession, then didn’t score again until the Huskies had already emptied their bench in the fourth quarter.

“Serah Williams impacted the game significantly and I think she got one bucket,” Auriemma said. “But the way she played defensively, the rebounding, just the presence that she had, I thought it was as engaged and as energetic and as assertive as I've seen her. The points don't reflect it, but everything else does.”

UConn couldn’t keep it going through halftime. During the 15-minute break, the Huskies lost their edge, in part because they called off the dogs. The two teams tied both the third and fourth quarters.

“We didn't pressure anymore and I think that affected us negatively in the third quarter,” Auriemma said.

In the pantheon of great halves across program history, there’s the 2002 Elite Eight against Old Dominion — Auriemma once called it the best ten minutes of basketball he’d ever seen — as well as the 2025 national semifinal versus UCLA. Both were brought up on Monday night.

“It reminded me of some of the NCAA Final Four games last year,” the coach said. “It looked a lot like that.”

But atop the list is UConn’s 2016 Sweet Sixteen victory over Mississippi State. The Huskies were ahead 19-2 after the first quarter and went into the break with a 61-12 lead. They went on to win by 60, the largest margin of victory ever in an NCAA Regional.

“The best half of basketball I've ever seen was when we played Mississippi State with Stewie (Breanna Stewart), (Morgan) Tuck and Moriah (Jefferson),” Auriemma declared. “That was everybody playing at a really, really, really high level. They don't happen very often.”

Still, Monday night was impressive. For as good as UConn has been all season long with 35 double-digit victories in 36 games, it reached a new high against Syracuse.

“I don't think anything matches the first half that we had tonight,” Heckel added. “It was crazy.”

“This was as good as any (half) that we’ve had,” Auriemma said.

“That’s as close to perfect as you’re gonna get,” Caroline Ducharme said.