Polley leads Huskies rally at Marquette
Trailing by 18 points, its best player and Big East scoring leader on the bench in pain, UConn appeared lost in its first true road game of the season. Sad, but true.
Out of nowhere, Tyler Polley and Isaiah Whaley changed all that in a hurry.
Polley scored all of his career-high 23 points in the latter half, Whaley, fueled by some pregame Metallica music, notched a doubledouble and UConn rode their lighting en route to a stirring 65-54 win at Marquette on Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum.
Despite a season-low six points on 3-for-12 shooting from James Bouknight, who missed a good portion of the second half with a hyperextended elbow, the Huskies improved to 5-1 overall, 2-1 in the Big East.
“James is a brilliant talent,” coach Dan Hurley noted. “We don’t want him to do that a lot, but it’s going to happen. Every seven, eight, nine games, you’re gonna have a game like this where you’re not
sharp. But we pride ourselves on being a program. Late last year, we changed the mindset of the team. You saw the residue of that today. Even though we blew the Creighton game down the stretch, we do expect to win now.”
And for UConn, nothing else matters.
The Huskies trailed 41-23 less than three minutes into the latter half. UConn called a timeout and Bouknight, who entered the game averaging a Big Eastbest 23.3 points per game, went back to the bench with elbow pain. Marquette guard Koby McEewen had landed on Bouknight’s left elbow while the two were diving for a loose ball with about three minutes left in the first half, and Bouknight left the game.
He started the latter half, but couldn’t prevent the Golden Eagles from jumping out to a 10-0 start.
Enter Sandman. Or, more precisely, Polley and Whaley.
Polley hit a 3-pointer and followed with a baseline drive that got the Huskies to within 12. Josh Carlton scored, then Whaley scored on a layup, then hit a rare
3-pointer, and UConn was within seven.
When Bouknight returned with 11:53 to play, the Huskies had slashed their 18-point deficit down to five. Polley converted a conventional 3-point play to make it a two-point game with 8:51 left, then followed with another 3-pointer to give the Huskies their first lead since the early minutes.
Another Polley trey with
6:55 left put UConn up
51-50, and the Huskies would never again trail.
“We just kept fighting as a team, kept battling,” said Polley, a senior. “We knew we didn’t play great in the first half. In the second half, we had to bring more intensity.”
“Tyler’s as good a guy as you’ll ever coach,” said Hurley. “I don’t think he has a bad bone in his body. It couldn’t happen to a better guy.”
Polley finished 8-for-12 from the floor and 5-for-8 on 3-pointers.
“It felt really good seeing him do that,” added Whaley. “I know he’s been through a lot of stuff, so to see him pull that out was amazing. To be a part of it with him ... it felt special.”
Ah yes, Whaley. The senior forward, who had struggled the prior couple of games while dealing with foul trouble, finished with
15 points and 13 rebounds. Hurley had switched up Whaley’s pregame music selection, offering him the heavy metal of Metallica over his typically lighter fare.
“I had to switch it up,” Whaley explained. “Usually, I go with something calm when there’s fans out there. But I went with some heavy rock to get me pumped up. I don’t even really know what songs they were, I just let it play out. I was pumped up before the game.”
Whaley’s energy seemed to be contagious, as the Huskies improved defensively over the final 17 minutes and appeared to play with extra purpose and passion.
Bouknight was just 3
for-9 from the floor in the first half as Marquette, primarily McEwen, made him fight for everything shot. His only field goals came on a transition layup and a pair of tip-ins.
With 3:04 left in the half, Bouknight fell to the floor for a loose ball and McEwen landed on his extended left arm. He didn’t return until after halftime.
The Golden Eagles (6-6,
2-4) owned a 31-23 lead at the break, keyed by a 13-0 run midway through the period in which five different players scored. The Huskies appeared disjointed offensively for much of the half, shooting just
10-for-30 (33.3 percent) and turning the ball over eight times. A 5-0 mini-run to close out the half made the score a bit more presentable, but Marquette’s 10-0 start to the second put the Huskies in a tough spot.
“We were in a point in the game we couldn’t have imagined we’d find ourselves in,” Hurley explained. “It was like a boxer going to the stool after just getting rocked. We had to decide if we wanted to get off the stool and continue to fight. It showed a lot of character.”
It was UConn’s first true road game of the season, but the Huskies will have to get used to playing well wherever they may roam: They’re at Butler on Saturday, then at DePaul on Monday.
RIM RATTLINGS
A few start times were announced on Tuesday for upcoming UConn games. The Huskies’ Jan. 18 bout with St. John’s at Gampel will start at 5 p.m. on FoxSports1. UConn’s home bout with Xavier on Jan. 20 is an 8:30 p.m. start on CBS Sports Network. Finally, the Huskies’ Jan. 23 game at Creighton will start at either 2:30 or 5 p.m. and will be televised on FOX. The exact starting time will be announced in a few days.