Storrs, Conn. ? Forget revenge or first place. The one thing that kept coming up after No. 3 Connecticut beat No. 2 Villanova was toughness.

After the Huskies’ 89-75 victory Sunday left everybody in Gampel Pavilion drained whether they played or watched, coaches and players talked about the attitude and style that has become the trademark of the Big East.

“This was an advertisement for how hard the teams in this league play,” Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. “Increasing our toughness was one thing I thought we had to do. We knew we could score, but we had to show we could come up with that kind of game like we had other times this season.”

And it wasn’t Connecticut’s stars who let the Huskies avenge the loss that knocked them from No. 1 and moved them into a tie for first in the conference.

Denham Brown, Rashad Anderson, Hilton Armstrong and Jeff Adrien all came up big for Connecticut 13 days after Villanova beat the Huskies, 69-64, in Philadelphia.

“This game was really a big game for us, a statement,” Adrien said. “They got real happy after that first win, and we had to shut their mouths. Today we had to go out there and show them we’re not what they think we are. We are men out there.”

The Huskies (25-2, 12-2) took control of this game with an 18-3 run in the second half.

Connecticut's Denham Brown (33) slams for two of his career-high 23 points. UConn beat Villanova, 89-75, on Sunday in Storrs, Conn.

Brown, a senior swingman, had a career-high 23 points on 8-for-13 shooting. He had a total of 18 points in the Huskies’ last three games, the first of which was the loss to Villanova (22-3, 12-2) that ended an 11-game winning streak.

The Wildcats came into this game with 11 straight victories.

“We’re tougher than a lot of people give us credit for,” Brown said. “This was a game we had a bull’s eye on for the last two weeks.”

Anderson, the leading non-starting scorer in the country at 13.5 points per game, had 17 points.

Armstrong, the senior center who anchors the best shot-blocking team in the nation, had nine points and eight of the Huskies’ 11 blocked shots.

Alabama 82, No. 12 Florida 77

Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Ronald Steele scored 19 points, and Alabama was 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 31 seconds to beat Florida.

No. 17 Washington 73, California 62

Seattle – Brandon Roy scored 19 of his 27 points in the second half to lead Washington into a second place tie in the Pac-10.

Indiana 78, No. 18 Michigan State 71

Bloomington, Ind. – Robert Vaden scored 21 points, and Errek Suhr stole the ball and hit two clinching free throws with a half-minute to go as the Hoosiers held off a second-half comeback in coach Mike Davis’s final game at Assembly Hall.

No. 19 UCLA 70, Oregon 53

Los Angeles – Freshman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute scored 14 points, and UCLA overcame a sluggish first half to beat Oregon in the 100th meeting between the schools. UCLA (22-6, 12-4 Pac-10) took the court for its final home game of the season, knowing that a victory would leave it with no worse than a tie for first place in the conference with California heading into Thursday’s showdown with the Golden Bears at Berkeley.

No. 21 North Carolina 81, Maryland 57

Chapel Hill, N.C. – Tyler Hansbrough scored 21 points to help North Carolina continue its climb in the Atlantic Coast Conference.