Road warriors UConn wins its third straight away from home
NO. 25 UCONN 60 DEPAUL 53
UConn had the Big East Player of the Week on its side and, for the first time in some five years, a national ranking affixed to its name.
Alas, the 25th-ranked Huskies were still without the Big East’s leading scorer on Monday, and at times it was glaring. Fortunately for UConn, Tyrese Martin stepped up in James Bouknight’s absence over the final five minutes, helping guide the Huskies to a 6053 win over DePaul at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena.
Martin finished with a game-high 18 points, including consecutive buckets inside the final two minutes that gave the Huskies a six-point lead. R.J. Cole’s free throw with 26.3 seconds left closed out the game’s scoring, as UConn’s swarming defense forced DePaul into turnovers on several of their final possessions down the stretch.
The Blue Demons didn’t score over the final 4:23 of the contest.
“We did a better job of holding the paint, being more aggressive,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “I think we were a step slow. But that’s what winning teams do. Good teams, the last four or five minutes of a close game, they rely on their defense.”
UConn (7-1, 4-1 Big East) has now won its first three road games of the season for the first time since 2008-09. The Huskies won their first nine games away from home that season.
“Thrilled to get the win, just able to kind of grind out a road game,” Hurley said. “Third straight road game, in the Midwest, in less than a week. Won that just with toughness. The guys showed real grit and heart. We didn’t play a clean game, after a really good start. But credit DePaul. Those guys played really, really hard.”
Earlier in the day, UConn learned it had returned to the AP Top 25 for the first time since October, 2016. The 25th-ranked Huskies were also making their first visit to the national rankings during the regular season since Jan. 4, 2016, when they were ranked No. 23.
“They said ‘It’s coming,’ ” Cole said. “We’re here now. And that’s for years to come.”
UConn had as much as an 11-point first-half lead cut to one just before halftime. An 8-0 run early in the latter half gave the lead back to DePaul (1-4, 0-4). It was a back-and-forth affair
the rest of the way, with eight lead changes over the final 18 minutes.
With 5:19 to play, Cole hit a corner 3-pointer to get the Huskies to within a point.
“I was just happy that I was there for my teammates in that moment,” Cole said. “Tyrese made a good move and he found me there, so kudos to him. He had faith in me, and I was able to knock it down.”
Martin followed with a transition layup to put the Huskies ahead, but DePaul’s Nick Ongenda countered with a dunk. UConn regained the lead again, though it hit just three of six from the foul line over a minute stretch to do so. With 1:16 left, Martin scored a layup off an inbounds pass by Cole from under the basket.
After another DePaul turnover, Martin scored on a lefty drive with 1:05 left for a six-point lead.
“I didn’t expect the ball to be at the end of my hands at the end of this game, at all,” Martin, a 6-foot-6 junior forward, confessed. “I’m just here to make toughness plays and do what I can do to get this win.”
Cole and senior Tyler Polley followed Martin in the scoring column with 12 points each.
“That’s what sports is all about,” said Hurley. “That’s what emerging teams or good teams (do). You find a way to win. There were so many plays that said this wasn’t gonna be our night. But this group is tough, and they found a way.”
Bouknight sat out his second straight game after suffering a hyperextended left elbow late in the first half of UConn’s win at Marquette on Tuesday night. The Huskies came back to beat Marquette without much help from the 6-5 sophomore guard, then throttled Butler on Saturday with Bouknight not playing at all.
His absence was felt much more so on Monday.
“And it’ll be felt until he returns,” Hurley said. “That doesn’t mean you don’t win another way. We are gonna have to rely on our defense and our rebounding.”
“There’s always a path to victory,” Hurley added. “With James out there, it’s not as narrow.”
Bouknight’s 20.3 points per game leads the Big East.
“That’s a lot of scoring for us and good defense from him,” Cole said. “But we have a pretty deep team. That’s the biggest thing about us. Any given night, some one else can step up. That’s what we’ve been doing.”
According to Hurley, UConn will find out on Tuesday just how much longer it will have to make do without the likely NBA first-round pick.
“We have a pretty good idea of where it’s heading for him,” Hurley said. “If he misses time, it won’t be a lot of time.”
RIM RATTLINGS
1 Polley had been named Big East Player of the Week on Monday. The senior forward scored 42 points off the bench in a pair of Husky road victories at Marquette and Butler. Polley shot a combined 13for-22 from the floor, including 10-for-16 from 3
point land, in the two games.
Polley is the first UConn player to earn Big East Player of the Week honors since the program re-joined the Big East this season.
The last time UConn was in the AP Top 25 (No. 18 on Oct. 31, 2016), the Huskies promptly lost their first two games of the season, at home, to Wagner and Northeastern, and didn’t sniff the national rankings again until Monday.
“It just goes to show that UConn basketball is on its way to what it was,” Martin said. “We’re not here to just be satisfied at No. 25. We’re here to be our best come March. So, we’re just gonna keep pushing every day, practicing the way we practice, and eventually we’re gonna be one of the top teams in this country.”
Hurley had assistant coaches Tom Moore, Kevin Freeman and Taliek Brown, all of whom have been around the program at different times for a while, to address the team on the life and impact of former UConn coach Dee Rowe, who passed away on Sunday at 91.
“What great programs do is find a way to win a game like (Monday) and then they dedicate that and honor Coach Rowe and his family and everything he’s meant to UConn and to basketball, and to the world,” Hurley said. “The world would be in a much better place. We wouldn’t have the divisiveness and hate and sufferings if there were more human beings with his kindness.”
Asked about UConn’s national ranking, Cole added: “That’s Coach Rowe right there. He started it for us. Now, we’ll just continue that legacy.”