Men open foreign tour with win
UConn head coach Dan Hurley wanted to make sure there was “some level of quality” to the way the defending national champions played on their foreign tour, which began with a 132-66 victory over Le Cannet Basket in France on Saturday.
The Huskies had a 27-point lead at halftime and finished the 66-point win with seven scorers in double-digits.
Rising sophomore Alex Karaban drilled five of his seven attempts from the 3-point line to finish with a team-high 20 points, along with four rebounds, two assists, a steal and block.
Classmate Donovan Clingan tested his range with a
3-pointer and made all six of his shots to finish with 16 points and four rebounds.
Guards Tristen Newton (18 points), Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer (13) and Hassan Diarra (nine) filled out the starting five in Game 1. Spencer finished with six assists, while Diarra added
five, and Newton shot 7-for11 from the field.
Off the bench Samson Johnson scored 12 points and grabbed six offensive rebounds (eight total).
Stephon Castle led the freshmen with 15 points (7 of 11 from the field) and was active on defense with five steals. Solomon Ball scored 11 points with three assists and two steals, while Jayden Ross added eight points and had two steals of his own.
Youssouf Singare scored four points (2-of-3) and grabbed three rebounds.
Sophomore Apostolos Roumoglou had four points and seven rebounds, six of which came on the offensive end of the floor. Andrew Hurley had two points and two rebounds .
Freshman Jaylin Stewart was feeling under the weather and did not play in the opening game.
UConn departs for Barcelona, Spain, on a 9 a.m. flight tomorrow.
The Huskies will play against two Spanish select teams on Monday and Tuesday.