Clingan’s big game for naught in loss

MILWAUKEE — For one 31⁄2-minute stretch, the UConn men’s basketball team looked as good as it’s looked since Big East play began.

With Donovan Clingan dominating both ends of the floor, the Huskies harkened back to their performance at the PK85 Invitational in Portland, Ore. — where Clingan was named MVP — and turned a fivepoint deficit into an 11-point lead during that one blinding stretch in the first half.

Clingan continued to dominate the rest of the way, but the sixth-ranked Huskies didn’t get enough production from elsewhere and fell to Marquette 82-76 Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum.

“If you go on the (team) bus right now, there’s not one smile on a face,” Clingan said. “Everyone’s bothered by it, everyone’s hurt. We’ve just got to find the toughness, the team identity, individual identity again, and we’ll be good.”

UConn (15-3, 4-3 Big

East) dropped its 17th straight true road game to a ranked team, dating back to a January, 2014 win at Memphis. The Huskies have now dropped three straight road contests, at No. 12 Xavier on Dec. 31, at No. 19 Providence on Jan. 4, and now at 25th-ranked Marquette.

“It’s a big-time atmosphere in here, no prompting needed,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “This crowd was definitely a factor when we were unraveling. You’ve got to play a full 40-minute game if you want to win on the road.”

Marquette improved to 14-4, 6-1 Big East.

Clingan finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and two steals, and got some help from fellow freshman Alex Karaban (17 points, seven boards). It was easily the best game in the Big East for both players.

“The wins and losses mean 100-percent everything,” a downcast Karaban said. “I don’t care how well I played, as long as we win, I’ll be the happiest kid alive.”

But UConn’s two leading scorers, Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins, were too quiet. Sanogo finished with 10 points, just three rebounds and five turnovers. while Hawkins had eight points on a mere 1-for-8 shooting.

“It’s going to be hard to win on the road that way, in places like this against teams like that,” Hurley said.

UConn’s 11-point firsthalf lead was whittled down to four at the break, and when Oso Ighodaro hit a jumper just under four minutes into the latter half, the Golden Eagles owned a 44-42 lead.

They would never trail again.

Four straight Clingan points would bring the Huskies within 52-50. But Marquette opened up a nine-point lead (73-64) with 2:31 left. UConn would get back to within three on a Karaban and-1 inside the final minute, but the Golden Eagles knocked down six straight foul shots to seal the deal.

Clingan checked in with 11:46 left in the first half and UConn trailing 17-15. He quickly scored on a dunk, followed by a layup off a pass from Nahiem Alleyne.

He’d add a layup off a Joey Calcaterra feed that helped spur a 14-0 UConn run over 3 1/2 minutes, capped by a Tristen Newton drive and forcing Shaka Smart to burn a timeout.

The Huskies’ head-spinning run came courtesy of Clingan, Calcaterra, Alleyne and starters Newton and Andre Jackson. When starters Sanogo, Karaban and Hawkins checked back in, Marquette immediately went on a 9-0 run to get within two. Clearly suffering a bit of Ryan Kalkbrenner letdown (he had dominated Creighton’s 7-footer on Saturday), Sanogo failed to grab a rebound and turned the ball over four times in the opening half, the last of which caused Hurley to replace him with Clingan again.

Asked what was wrong with Sanogo on Wednesday, Hurley replied: “I’m not sure. I think he just had a bad game. I think early, he got a little spooked. He had those great opportunities early around the basket. A couple of turnovers

... he got unnerved a little bit out there, which a guy with his experience, I think he’ll respond.”

Clingan wound up playing a season-high matching 21 minutes, Sanogo 19.