FINAL: Michigan Wolverines 77, UConn Huskies 66
No. 5 Michigan beat No. 2 UConn 77-66 at Crisler Center on Thursday, November 5, 2026, snapping the Huskies’ 39-game regular-season win streak in the Wolverines’ season opener. The win is the highest-ranked victory in Michigan program history, sealed with a 13-2 fourth-quarter run against the most successful program in the women’s game.
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How to watch: UConn Huskies at Michigan Wolverines, Thursday, November 5, 6:30 p.m. ET at Crisler Center
TV: FS1
A First In Program History, After 31 Tries
Michigan women’s basketball had never done this before, and the history was not close. The Wolverines entered Thursday 0-31 all-time against top-four opponents, a run of near misses that included three losses by three points to top-five teams last season alone. UConn, meanwhile, had won 39 straight regular-season games since its last loss on February 6, 2025, and arrived in Ann Arbor at 1-0 after opening with a 100-35 win over Cornell.
The setting matched the stakes. This was the first-ever matchup of top-five teams in the AP Top 25 at Crisler Center, in front of a crowd close to capacity, and it was Michigan’s first game of a season that follows the best year in school history, a run that ended in the program’s second Elite Eight appearance. One game into the new season, the Wolverines have a result that tops anything on that resume, and a case to be ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll next week.
Delfosse Career High Leads A Shared Load
Junior wing Te’Yala Delfosse scored a career-high 22 points with nine rebounds, shooting 8-of-13 and hitting four three-pointers. FOX College Hoops posted the three that carried her to the career high on X: the clip is here. Olivia Olson added 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and Michigan put four players in double figures on a night when it played without starting point guard Mila Holloway, who is out indefinitely with an injured left leg.
The other two double-figure nights carried their own weight. Courtney Ogden, a transfer from Stanford, scored 12 points in her Michigan debut, eight of them in the third quarter when UConn was pushing back in front. Canadian guard Syla Swords scored 10 points with five rebounds, a year after her 29 points nearly beat these same Huskies in a 72-69 loss. Where that game turned on one player’s scoring, this one was spread across the rotation, and UConn had no single answer for it.
Strong Fouls Out As The Streak Ends
Michigan’s plan started at the defensive end, in a 2-3 zone that dared a UConn team in its first season without Azzi Fudd to win from distance. The Huskies shot 3-for-14 from deep in the first half, and Sarah Strong, the reigning AP Player of the Year, went scoreless through two quarters while picking up three fouls. Michigan won the second quarter 18-8 and led 35-29 at half-time, built on nine offensive rebounds and a defence that kept forcing the ball loose.
Strong returned in the third with 11 points in the quarter, and UConn edged ahead 48-46, then 57-55 early in the fourth. The Huskies also unravelled in stretches: as UConn beat writer Daniel Connolly wrote on X during the third quarter, “The Huskies committed seven fouls and five turnovers that quarter. Very sloppy.” Michigan answered the last UConn lead with the deciding run, 13-2 early in the fourth, through two Geno Auriemma timeouts, to go up 68-59 with 5:33 left. Strong fouled out with 13 points, and freshman Jovana Popovic, who led UConn with 25, was the Huskies’ only other player in double figures.
What Comes Next For Both Teams
The loss drops UConn to 1-1, and the schedule does not soften: the Huskies host No. 10 Iowa on Sunday, one of nine games against current top-20 teams on their slate, with top-ranked South Carolina waiting on November 24. For Michigan, now 1-0, the follow-up is a home game against Wright State on Sunday, and a new question the program has never had to answer: how to play as the team that just beat UConn.
That question is the point of the night. A streak of 39 wins and a program history of 31 straight losses to top-four teams both ended in the same building, in a season opener, with the winning team missing its starting point guard. Michigan did not edge a weakened opponent; it outscored the No. 2 team in the country 22-13 in the fourth quarter and closed the game at both ends. The Wolverines have been building toward the Final Four they have never reached. On Thursday, they beat the program that defines that stage, and they beat them by 11.
