There were games which served as an introduction to this one in terms of toughness.

In the UConn women's basketball team's 67-61 victory over Tennessee on Jan. 21 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, for instance, the Huskies shot 33% in the first quarter, 28% in the third quarter and trailed 49-45 after three before coming back to win.

"Those first three quarters, it would have been really easy for us just to let it get away and leave here with an 'L,'" UConn coach Geno Auriemma said at the time. "Games like this are somewhat rewarding, I think. It's easy to win when everything's going right. It's easy to win when you feel like you're shooting it into the ocean.

"Winning when nothing's going right (is different)."

Top-seeded UConn, now 26-1 and entering its 27th straight NCAA tournament Sweet 16 Saturday against No. 4 Iowa (1 p.m., Ch. 8) in the River Walk Region in San Antonio, has come to adopt toughness as a byword.

Freshman All-American Paige Bueckers took an errant elbow to the face early in the second half of Tuesday's 83-47 second-round victory over No. 8 Syracuse and never even left the game.

The bigs, Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Aaliayh Edwards, guarded a Syracuse big who seemed to tower over them in 6-foot-7 center Kamilla Cardosa.

And UConn was missing Auriemma, who tested positive for COVID-19 and was only able to rejoin the team Wednesday, following the first two rounds; assistant coach Shea Ralph, who returned home as a precaution after a family member tested positive for COVID-19; and starting freshman guard Nika Muhl, who sprained her right ankle in the Huskies' NCAA tournament opener.

"I'm very proud of my team and the way we handled the game tonight," Nelson-Ododa said. "I think we showed a lot of toughness."

"I think you go in expecting to have to grind it out," said UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey, who remained unbeaten in 12 games filling in for Auriemma in her career. "There's no rule that says Connecticut has to be up 40 at halftime. There's only good teams left. You have to expect that other teams are going to play well.

"You're going to miss shots. You're going to have to make plays and stay together. We've been learning that and we've done it and today was another example of that."

Bueckers had 20 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals for UConn against Syracuse, Edwards 19 points and Nelson-Ododa 17 points and eight rebounds. Nelson-Ododa had four fouls and Christyn Williams and Evina Westbrook had three each in the clash with the Orange.

"Going into the game, that was our game plan," Edwards said, "making sure their bigs don't get position on us. You've just got to be physical with them. When the shots go up, don't let them get second chances. I thought we did well crowding their space and forcing them to get different shots."

Dailey said no UConn player had to do anything superhuman for the Huskies to beat Syracuse.

"Everyone just had to do what they do and do it well," Dailey said. "I thought every person that came in, we got good minutes from Aubrey (Griffin), we got good minutes from Anna (Makurat). I thought we had people step up and do their role and play their part and do their job and that's nice to see."

Bueckers scored 16 points in the first half, then pretty much spent the second half meticulously threading the ball through the gaps in Syracuse's zone defense, several times to Nelson-Ododa.

"I mean, Paige has incredible court vision so she's able to get those passes there," Nelson-Ododa said. "First of all see them, second of all get them there timely, when it's wide open. Give her a lot of credit, especially finding the open person. Everybody was finding the next open person."

Dailey said the work ethic it took to get through this season with games and practices and holidays all affected by COVID-19, and the industriousness it took to topple Syracuse, in part, come from the roots of the program, which can boast an unprecedented 11 national championships.

The Huskies are not just playing for themselves but for those who came before them, many of whom texted Dailey headed into the second-round game Tuesday.

"You have to embrace being at UConn," Dailey said. "You have to embrace having a target on your back. You have to embrace working hard and having it not always be easy."

v.fulkerson@theday.com