A hole too deep
Seton Hall squashes UConn’s comeback bid
STORRS — Andre Jackson was an immediate splash in his first game in six weeks.
Jalen Gaffney played the best game of his collegiate career.
And for the second time in the span of the last month, UConn made a furious comeback bid from an 18- point first- half deficit.
This time, however, the Huskies fell short.
Seton Hall countered UConn’s comeback charge, then countered every mini- run the Huskies mustered throughout the second half en route to an 80- 73 victory at Gampel Pavilion on Saturday.
“Tough loss,” UConn coach Dan Hurley mused. “Huge credit to Seton Hall. Those guys played really, really well. Bottom line for us, we can’t get down 18 against a team that good offensively. It’s a little too huge of a hill to climb.”
On Jan. 5 in Milwaukee, UConn spotted Marquette an 18- point firsthalf lead, only to rally back behind Tyler Polley’s hot shooting for a 65- 54 victory.
Almost exactly a month later, it was Gaffney and Jackson doing their best to lead the charge. Gaffney, a sophomore point guard, poured in a career- high 20 points and displayed an assertiveness on offense not previously seen much in his first two seasons as a Husky.
“I thought it was a breakthrough, offensively,” he said of his performance.
Meanwhile Jackson, who broke his wrist in practice just before Christmas and has been sidelined ever since, had a career- best seven points and four rebounds, as well as perhaps the highlight dunk of the season — a one- handed putback slam in the first half that helped the Huskies slice that 18- point deficit in
half by the break ( 38- 29).
“Pregame, coach was telling me to crash the offensive glass,” Jackson reported. “That’s basically what I did. Initially, I was just gonna get the rebound, and I saw it was above the rim. So, I just put it in.”
UConn scored the first seven points of the latter half, capped by a Brendan Adams 3- pointer, to get to within two. But Sandro Mamukelashvili hit a 3pointer, then R. J. Cole turned the ball over and Myles Cale soared in for a dunk to quickly get the Pirates back up seven ( 43- 36).
“That turnover against the pressure there was a killer,” said Hurley. “We should’ve been going back into that first media timeout a twopoint game and feeling pretty good about where we were.”
UConn would get to within four a few times, including within the final minute, but never closer. The Huskies never led, and fell to 8- 4 overall and 5- 4 in the Big East.
Seton Hall, led by Mamukelashvili’s game- high 22 points, improved to 11- 8, 8- 5.
UConn couldn’t have played much worse over the first 16 minutes. When Mamukelashvili scored on an inside basket with 4: 02 left in the first half, the Pirates were doubling the Huskies up ( 36- 18) and Hurley burned a timeout, not bothering to wait for the ensuing media timeout.
It was UConn’s first game in 10 days after yet another COVID- 19 pause, and it showed. The Huskies missed their first five shots and eight of their first nine, while also turning the ball over at a high rate.
“That was absolutely a byproduct of having not played,” Hurley said. “A little bit out of rhythm. We were getting great shots ... we couldn’t make anything, and they were obviously making their shots. When you go on pause, it hurts. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a reality.”
UConn came out of the timeout with an 11- 2 run to close out the half, highlighted by Jackson’s putback dunk — on which he appeared to be eye- level with the rim.
“He’s just scratching the surface,” Hurley said of the 6- foot- 6 forward, who also missed a bulk of time in the offseason following knee surgery. “He’s dealt with so much ... Yeah, you saw glimpses of it. Obviously the splash play, which really got us going. He really doesn’t know what he’s doing out there. Once he gets a feel, and we get ( James) Bouknight back, we’re gonna look much different.”
Ah yes, Bouknight. The team’s leading scorer and likely 2021 NBA draft pick. He could be back soon. In fact, he wanted to be back on Saturday.
“He pushed hard to play ( Saturday),” Hurley reported. “He put a lot of pressure on the medical staff ( Friday night). He’s recovered well.”
The coach noted that Bouknight, who had left elbow surgery on Jan. 12, is a “game- time decision moving forward.” UConn’s next game is on Wednesday at Providence.
“He wants it, obviously,” Hurley continued. “He’s not trying to sit and keep his status of where he stands or his potential future earnings. This dude wants back in. And that’s great to see in the culture that we have in basketball today, that’s not always like that.”
RIM RATTLINGS
1 Hurley drew a technical foul with 14: 28 left after adamantly arguing that an out- of- bounds call should have gone against Seton Hall. The Pirates got four points out of it — a pair of free throws by Rhoden, then a tough jumper at the shotclock buzzer by Rhoden that put the Hall up 10.
“( The ref) said it was the bench, that our bench was too boisterous, reacting to the call that wasn’t made,” Hurley explained. “That’s a tough one. That’s my first technical of the season, because the one at Creighton — they can put that on the books like I got one, but that wasn’t a technical. I guess it was either me or the bench, I got two different explanations. One ref said it was the bench, the other ref said that I was out of the box. I wasn’t out of the box, so I’d imagine it was on the bench.”
Hurley clearly wasn’t pleased.
“I thought they missed a couple of travel calls. I thought Mamu clearly traveled in front of their bench, then went in for a dunk with his right hand.”
“That was an intense game, it was fun to be a part of. Just a lot of juice to that game, benches were into it, a lot of intensity on the court, it was an important game, there was no crowd. Let it go, man.”