Sports: UConn women beat Vanderbilt and UConn men fall to Saint Joseph’s
UConn men fall to rebuilding Saint Joseph’s team at Gampel
Storrs — UConn waited too long to come to life on Wednesday.
The Huskies paid the price for barely have a pulse until the second half.
The result: an ugly 9687 loss to Saint Joseph's, a rebuilding team picked to finish near the bottom of the Atlantic 10 Conference, at Gampel Pavilion.
Trailing by as many as 27 points, the Huskies roared back to within three late in the second half. But they couldn't complete the comeback.
Senior Christian Vital led the way with 26 points and a career-high 16 rebounds and redshirt junior Alterique Gilbert added 22 points.
At the start, UConn (1-1) lacked energy, enthusiasm and the emotion necessary to compete.
Coach Dan Hurley tried to stop the bleeding by calling two timeouts inside the first 10 minutes and making substitutions but nothing worked.
The Huskies missed their first nine shots on the way to an icy 34.9 percent from the field overall.
The Hawks (2-1) rode a torrid 3-point shooting attack to a 16-point halftime lead and converted overall from beyond the arc. Red-shirt junior Ryan Daly scored 21 of his game-high 30 points in the first half.
For the second straight game, the Huskies looked like they were waiting for their wakeup call.
They played poorly at both ends of the court and quickly fell behind 14-0. Gilbert's driving basket ended the drought at the 15:53 mark. Things gradually improved in the second half. UConn's energy level rose and it started a comeback by increasing the defensive pressure and speeding up the game.
The Huskies closed to within three, 79-76, when Vital made two free throws with 4:41 left.
Redshirt freshman Akok Akok's breakaway dunk brought UConn to within 82-78. The Hawks responded with an 8-0 run to basically seal the win.
The Hawks were every bit of the matchup nightmare that Hurley predicted they would be. They spread the floor and shot with great confidence.
Daly and Myles Douglas combined to score the first 19 points for the Hawks, who drained eight of their first 11 3-pointers. St. Joe's hit its average of 10 3-pointers per game by halftime.
The deficit grew to 27 (46-19) before a late UConn surge close the gap a bit. Gilbert's two straight 3-pointers capped an 11-2 run.
By halftime, St. Joe's already had 54 points, just 13 fewer than UConn allowed in the season-opening win over Sacred Heart. The Huskies shot 30.6 percent, with Vital and Gilbert combining to sink just 5 of 22 attempts. They finished 10-for-40 overall.
UConn showed more life in the second half but the damage had been done. Hurley picked up his first technical foul of the season with 12:37 left.
Play the same way against No. 15 Florida on Sunday in Storrs and the Huskies will be in deep trouble.
They're still searching for the swagger, joy and killer instinct that
Hurley wants them to play with on a regular basis.
Hurley talked about that issue after the Sacred Heart game and again on Tuesday.
"Part of the issue is we haven't won here in a couple of years, so its hard for there to be a collective confidence," Hurley said. "What we want to see is more emotion and more joy. ... There's an emotional component to the game and you've got to have an edge."
It wasn't all bad news for the Huskies on Wednesday.
They scored a big recruiting victory by receiving a verbal commitment from 6-foot-11 center Javonte Brown-Ferguson, who attends Thornlea Secondary School in Ontario. He picked UConn over Kansas and Texas A&M and reportedly plans to reclassify to the Class of 2020.
"It's close to home and then they are getting a lot of hype right now because they're getting back to the Big East," Brown-Ferguson told 247 Sports about why he selected UConn. "When I went on the visit you can tell the players and coaching staff are really hungry and really passionate. I can tell in a couple of years, maybe this year or next year they are going to go far."
The Huskies still have a long way to go judging from Wednesday's performance. g.keefe@theday.com