Cole, Bouknight lead Huskies over Hoyas
R.J. Cole is new to the Big East, but no stranger to torching Georgetown.
Cole had a couple of highscoring games against the Hoyas while at Howard, though they both came in losses. On Tuesday night, when UConn needed someone to step up in the second half, Cole rose to the challenge.
The 6-foot-1 point guard scored 14 of his 17 points in the latter half to help lead UConn to a 70-57 victory over Georgetown at McDonough Arena. Cole also finished with seven assists, six steals and countless floor burns as he dove for loose balls all game and set the tone on a night when defense and grittiness were going to have to win the day for the Huskies.
UConn (11-6, 8-6 Big East) made its first five shots and
six of its final seven shots of the game. In between were stretches of poor shooting and sloppy turnovers. The defense, however, never rested.
Neither did James Bouknight. Though the UConn star was gassed after 36 minutes of action at Villanova on Saturday, he certainly looked fresh down the stretch on Tuesday. Bouknight scored 14 of his teamhigh 20 points in the second half, connected on a couple of alley-oop dunks from Cole and hit a 3-pointer with 2:30 left, closing a 9-0 Huskies run that pretty much sealed the victory.
Bouknight also tore down 10 rebounds for a doubledouble.
Georgetown (7-11, 5-8 Big East) shot just 36 percent from the floor.
UConn came out breathing fire, hitting its first five shots for a 10-0 start and six of its first seven for a 12-2 edge.
Even better, the Huskies’ defense smothered the Hoyas at every turn.
Georgetown had just four field goals in the game’s first 12 minutes. Even after UConn missed nine of its next 10 shots, it still led 20-12 following an Isaiah Whaley layup off a beautiful Tyrese Martin no-look pass with 8:08 left in the half.
But Georgetown — particularly former UConn recruiting target Qudus Wahab — used a steady march to the foul line over the final 61⁄2 minutes. Meanwhile, the Huskies missed 11 straight shots at one point until Bouknight’s alley-oop slam from Cole gave them a 25-23 lead with 27 seconds left in the half.
Georgetown, however, countered with a Jamari Sibley 3-pointer with 7 seconds left in the half for a 26-25 lead at the break.
Cole had scored 17 points against Georgetown as a freshman at Howard on Dec. 7, 2017, and poured in 28 against Georgetown on Dec. 29, 2018.