Clingan leads Huskies to convincing win over Gonzaga
SEATTLE — In the shadow of the famous Space Needle, Donovan Clingan towered over his competition.
Meanwhile, the rest of the UConn men’s basketball team flung in 3-pointers like fish at Pike Place Market, and the Huskies had yet another convincing win against yet another ranked team.
And again, the victim was Gonzaga. Clingan played his best game of the season, with 21 points and eight rebounds, and Cam Spencer added 15 to lead UConn to a 76-63 win over the Zags in a “Battle in Seattle” at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday night. The Huskies had ended Gonzaga’s season (and Drew Timme’s lengthy college career) in the Sweet 16 last March in Las Vegas.
“We’re thrilled to be able to get this game on our schedule,” coach Dan Hurley said. “We’ve got so much respect for Gonzaga and their program and Mark Few, one of the truly elite coaches, Hall of Fame-level coach. To be able to play in this building, in a great sports city like Seattle, unbelievable arena ... To get to play this opponent, in front of that type of crowd. I know this is kind of a neutral series, but it didn’t feel neutral.”
Fifth-ranked UConn (10-1) hit seven of its first eight 3-pointers and shot 63-percent from the floor in the opening half. The Huskies cooled off a bit in the latter half, missing all eight of their attempts from distance. But 10thranked Gonzaga (8-3) couldn’t capitalize, missing a slew of 3-pointers that could have got them within single digits and made things interesting.
The Zags finally got within 10 with about four minutes left. But Hassan
Diarra countered with an alley-oop lob to Clingan, who quickly returned the favor with a long outlet pass to Diarra for a layup.
“Donovan played amazing tonight,” Diarra said. “He’s a big target on the road, so it’s easy to find him. He found me back. It was great.”
UConn is now 5-2 all-time against the Zags. This was the fourth time they’ve met as top-10 teams. All seven meetings have been at neutral sites.
That means UConn still hasn’t defeated a ranked, nonconference opponent in a true road game since a January, 2014 win at Memphis. But while this may not have been a “true” road game, it certainly featured just as much adversity, with the vast majority of the 16,405 fans pulling for Gonzaga.
UConn never trailed. The Huskies got the ball inside to Clingan early and often, and the 7-foot-2 center abused Gonzaga’s 6-9 Graham Ike, scoring eight of the Huskies’ first 10 points.
“I had to attack the bigs and help this team win any way possible,” Clingan said. “I know I had a little size advantage on them, and I had to get back to my identity on the offensive and defensive glass and finishing through contact. I feel like I’m starting to find that again.”
“Against that front line, to have that type of game ... that’s as good a front line as there is in the country,” Hurley said. “That was the best Donovan’s moved around the court in a while.”
Indeed, Clingan had missed about a month of practices leading up to UConn’s season-opener with a foot injury. He’s certainly been productive, but seemingly a bit off his game, perhaps a bit winded, up until Friday’s performance.
“The last couple of days, finally waking up and not being sore, feeling 100 percent, is something that really gave me a lot of confidence and momentum coming into this game,” Clingan noted.
Few switched 6-10 Ben Gregg on Clingan, and the Bristol product scored just two more points the rest of the half. But others stepped up, most notably Spencer, who hit all three of his 3-pointers and had 13 points at the break.
The Huskies shot 17-for-27 from the floor over the opening 20 minutes, including 7-for-9 (73 percent) from 3. UConn owned a 45-34 advantage at the break, with Anton Watson and Ryan Nembhard (13 points apiece) keeping the Zags in the game.
Ike, Gonzaga’s leading scorer entering the game, was held scoreless (on just one shot attempt) in the opening half. He wound up with a mere five points and five rebounds.
Alex Karaban added 11 points for UConn, but the Huskies’ secondbest player on Friday night was Diarra. The senior guard scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds off the bench. But it was his defensive tenacity that was most impressive, never more so than on one sequence midway through the latter half.
Diarra tipped consecutive Gonzaga passes out of bounds. Then, on the ensuing inbounds pass, he tipped it again, and this time caught it for a steal.
“That’s just making multiple efforts, playing hard, bringing energy,” Diarra reported. “Those types of efforts and plays help us win.”
“That’s the kind of player he is,” Spencer added. “He just makes winning basketball plays. We feed off of it as a team. He brings that energy, especially on the defensive end. And he had some key buckets down the stretch, too.”
And now, the Big East. The Huskies begin conference play on Wednesday at Seton Hall, followed by an early Christmas gift on Saturday night in Hartford against Rick Pitino and St. John’s.
“Super-excited for it,” Karaban said.
“It’s exciting,” Hurley added. “We really did our part for the league. Coming in 10-1 nonconference and some big wins that will really overall help the league, in terms of NET and strength of the league.”
“We’ve got some momentum going into the first game at Seton Hall,” Spencer noted. “We just have to prepare the right way and keep our same effort.”