Huskies hit stride in second half, speed past Friars
While a light snowfall graced the Uconn campus on Wednesday evening, there was a blizzard taking place inside Gampel Pavilion.
A sold-out crowd turned up to see the Uconn men’s basketball team at the on-campus arena for the last time this season. Fans were greeted by “#Weseason” rally towels at their widely-unused seats. It was a white-out against No. 20 Providence for Senior Night and beers only cost $2.
After turning the ball over three times on their first four possessions, the Huskies turned their own disruptive defense into momentum on the other end and eventually pulled away in the second half for an 87-69 victory.
“It’s just such an incredible, incredible advantage to play in here,” head coach Dan Hurley said, “especially against a team of Providence’s quality — they’re one of the best teams in the league and a team that can do some serious damage in March, both in the Big East Tournament and in the NCAA Tournament. So to win so convincingly against a team of their quality, just a great sendoff here for Gampel. Our crowds have been incredible this year, it’s been years since we’ve had crowds like this in both venues.”
Jordan Hawkins, who struggled at the start, led a balanced offense with 20 points and six rebounds. Alex Karaban and Adama Sanogo each finished 16 points, while Karaban added eight rebounds and Sanogo had five boards with three blocks. Tristen Newton scored 12 points, adding seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
“I love being here,” Hawkins said. “I love playing for this team, I love playing for this state... Gampel is one of my favorite places to play as a basketball player in my life. It was definitely nice to play here with the students just getting really loud in here, it got real loud tonight.”
With the Friars up four at the seven-minute mark, the wild sequence that followed featured two layups from Sanogo, a corner 3-pointer from Hawkins that caused pandemonium in the building and a dunk from Newton that gave the chaos a second wind.
The 9-0 scoring run gave Uconn a 27-22 advantage less than two minutes after it began.
“That was men against boys in the second half,” Providence head coach Ed Cooley said. “I thought [Uconn’s] physicality, the environment here was big time. It was a big time atmosphere, the Big East is so underrated when you look at atmosphere, competitive edge top to bottom. That was one of Connecticut’s best games from start to finish in a long time.”
Uconn (21-7, 10-7 Big East) shot 53% from the field and held the Friars to 41.5%. The Huskies worked their way to a 40-20 rebounding advantage and scored 15 secondchance points.
Providence, now 20-8 and 12-5 in conference play, remains tied with Xavier and Creighton for second place in the Big East standings. Uconn is two games behind that pack and four behind first-place Marquette with three games left.
The Huskies, having won five of their last six, head to Madison Square Garden on Saturday looking to avenge their loss to St. John’s at the XL Center earlier in the season.
“We’re on a revenge tour,” Hawkins said. “We want to see all those teams [that beat us] again.”