UConn women set for showdown with St. John's

The UConn women's basketball team has made the trek down I-95 to Madison Square Garden for a Maggie Dixon Classic matchup with St. John's this afternoon, both of which - the venue and the opponent - are good signs for the Huskies.

While UConn is "only" 39-17 against St. John's in program history, almost all of those losses came early on in the series. Between 1978 and 1988, the Huskies went 1-15 against the Red Storm. Since then, UConn has won 38 of the last 40 meetings. Geno Auriemma is a lifetime 39-8 in the series.

As for the venue, the UConn women's team is just at home at MSG - if not more so - than the men's squad. The women are 5-0 all-time at the World's Most Famous Arena, including their most recent conquest, an 80-47 thumping of No. 21 Cal in last year's Maggie Dixon Classic. Two of those five wins have come against the Red Storm; the Huskies won by 21 points on Jan. 21, 2007 and by 32 points on Jan. 12, 2011.

In that game against the Golden Bears, Breanna Stewart took advantage of the big stage. In her first ever game at the Garden, Stewart dropped 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Twenty-one of those points came in the first half - one more than Cal's halftime total.

Our Matt Stypulkoski, who covered the women's team for the last two season with The Daily Campus, is in Manhattan for the game. He'll be live-tweeting and will also have post-game coverage from the Garden later this afternoon.

Go Huskies!