UConn defeats DePaul
Defense clamps down, Martin lifts No. 25 Huskies to gutty win at DePaul
The 25th-ranked UConn men beat DePaul 60-53 to improve to 7-1.
Tyrese Martin transferred from Rhode Island because he wanted to play Big East basketball.
So far, he’s proven to be right in his element. Martin scored 18 points Monday night as the UConn men surged in the final minutes to win an archetypal Big East game at DePaul, 60-53.
It was an intense, physical, grind-it-out win for the 25th-ranked Huskies (7-1, 4-1 Big East), who dedicated the game to Dee Rowe’s memory and fought off an upset to win their fourth in a row, their last three on the road.
“I knew coming in here nothing was going to be given to me,” Martin said. “I didn’t expect the ball to be in my hand at the end of this game at all. I’m just here to make toughness plays and do what I can do to get this win.”
UConn trailed in much of the second half, but scored the last eight points, holding DePaul scoreless over the last 4:27, pressuring the Blue Demons into six turnovers over that stretch.
The Huskies took the lead for good on Martin’s free throw with 2:34 left. Martin, 6 feet 6, scored on back-to-back possessions, both off turnovers and both second-chance field goals, to put the game away.
“We won with toughness,” coach Dan Hurley said. “The guys showed real grit and heart. We didn’t play a clean game. Some important winning plays there down the stretch . ... There were a lot of plays that said this wasn’t going to be our night, but these guys are tough and they found a way.”
The Huskies shot just 40.4 percent from the field, made only 13 of 24 free throws and were out-rebounded by 10. But they prompted 24 DePaul turnovers, giving
themselves enough chances to finally seal the game.
“Defense is our calling card,” said R.J. Cole, who scored 12 points. “If you don’t play defense, you’re not going to play . ... In that last four minutes, every timeout, huddle, we came together and told each other, ‘It’s about stops now. It’s about toughness.’ ”
Tyler Polley, though not as sharp as the previous two games, added 12 points for the Huskies. DePaul (1-4, 0-4) got 10 points from Darius Hall.
“The guys certainly didn’t have the same pop today,” Hurley said. “We looked a little tired.”
UConn built a 17-6 lead early in the game, as DePaul missed 13 of its first 15 shots, but the Blue Demons made 14 of their next 20 shots and had the better of the action for a long stretch, taking the lead with an 8-0 run in the second half. Then it was a back and forth down the stretch, nine lead changes in the second half, neither team shooting well.
DePaul led 51-47, its biggest lead, with 5:41 left when Martin found Cole in the left corner, and Cole nailed the 3-pointer, a critical momentum changer. Martin took it from there.
“Tyrese was huge,” Hurley said. “He put behind him some struggles at the free-throw line and made some timely baskets. And R.J. too, with that big 3 from the corner that really gave us a lift.”
The Huskies were playing as a ranked team, No. 25 in the AP poll, for the first time in nearly five years, and playing without James Bouknight for the second game in a row. Hurley said if Bouknight misses more time with his elbow injury, “it won’t be a lot of time.” UConn has a week before its next scheduled game, at home against St. John’s.
“When one man goes down, another man steps up,” Cole said. “That’s how we’ve been practicing. We can’t sit here and sulk. We’ve got to pick up that slack because that’s who we are.”
Bouknight’s absence was more obviously felt than in the game against Marquette, in which he was injured in the first half, and at Butler, where he sat out.
“There is always a path to victory,” Hurley said, “but with James not out there, it’s narrower.”
On Sunday night, Hurley spoke to the team about Rowe, who died earlier in the day, urging the players to “dig down” to overcome the tiring week on the road. Before the game, the assistant coaches who had known Rowe the longest, Tom Moore, Taliek Brown and Kevin Freeman, told them more about the Huskies coach from 1969-77.
“[Winning, being ranked], that’s coach Rowe right there,” Cole said. “This is what we work for . ... We’re here. Everybody says, ‘It’s coming.’ We’re here now, and we’re going to just keep going.”
Martin scored 22 in UConn’s victory over DePaul on Dec. 30. He didn’t score at Marquette, but has 33 points in the last two games. He was 7-for-14 on Monday night.
“I think he’s just scratching the surface of what he’s going to be able to do,” Hurley said. “This time, although it stinks to play without Bouk and [Andre Jackson], this is a really good opportunity for him to develop his role on the team and develop more confidence.”