HUSKIES HANG ON
Turnover-prone UConn men hold off St. Peter’s at the XL Center.
HARTFORD — The UConn men picked up a win, the minimum requirement against a midmajor opponent. But the Huskies made it much harder than it had to be Wednesday night.
“We have a lot of work to do with our ball security right now,” coach Dan Hurley said, after UConn survived 26 turnovers and beat St. Peter’s 66-56 before 7,514 at the XL Center. “The last two games have been really a poor reflection on my ability to get my team to be strong with the ball and make good decisions.”
The Huskies, who turned it over 22 times in the loss to Indiana in New York last week, took firm control of the game during an eight-minute stretch of the first half, outscoring the Peacocks 22-4 to take an 18-point lead.
They built the lead to 23 with 15 minutes to go, but St. Peter’s, as Hurley had predicted, played relentlessly hard and made the Huskies work to close it out, getting within 10 during the final minute.
“Huge credit to St. Peter’s,” Hurley said. “They’re a tough team to play against. They are gritty, they’re athletic and they are relentless. Shaheen [Holloway] had his team tougher than us in the second half.”
While the turnovers were alarming and will call for some adjustments, the Huskies continued with their own dogged defense, making 12 steals, promoting 25 turnovers and blocking nine shots. After a couple of unproductive games, UConn’s young bench players reemerged, providing 26 points. The Huskies shot 53.5% from the floor, going 7-for-17 on 3-pointers.
Freshman Jalen Gaffney, with 10 points and five assists in 20
minutes, had a break-through game in his first extended opportunity to run things on the floor. Teammates found him more aggressive, confident, the game slowing down for Gaffney.
“Practice, preparation, playing hard in practice,” Gaffney said, “that gives you confidence. I just had confidence coming in and I knew I was going to have a good game.”
He turned it over four times, all in the second half. But then his senior teammates, Alterique Gilbert, who came in with a 2.5-to-1 ratio of assists-to-turnovers, had six and five in this game.
“We’ve got to do a better job,” Gilbert said. “It’s that simple.”
Tyler Polley nailed four open 3-point shots for 12 points to lead the Huskies (7-3) in scoring.
“I’m comfortable, my teammates are finding me,” Polley said. “I’m getting to open areas and knocking shots down.”
Christian Vital scored nine and James Bouknight eight. Freshman Akok Akok had another statstuffing evening, with seven points, six assists and five blocks. When the Huskies were getting back on defense, Hurley would yell Akok’s name if he saw an opportunity for a block, and his 6-foot-9 freshman delivered.
“The impact that he has on the program and on the game,” Hurley said, “he’s been really great. This dude’s got big things ahead of him.”
For the Huskies to reach their goals, cutting back on turnovers will be job one, with two similar tune-up games against New Hampshire on Sunday, and New Jersey Institute of Technology (Dec. 29) coming up before conference play. UConn had been averaging only 13 per game before the last two games.
“The thing that was saving us is that we were pretty good at not turning it over,” Hurley said, “but we couldn’t make a shot. The last couple of games, we’re shooing it better but we’re doing bizarre things with the ball. I’m going to have to make some adjustments, have a shorter leash. If you’re irresponsible with the ball, you’ve got to come out.”
Aaron Estrada led St. Peter’s
(2-5) with 12 points.
The Huskies started the game much the way they finished the last one, turning the ball over at an alarming rate, eight times in the first eight minutes. St. Peter’s tied the game at 10 on Hassan Drame’s 3-pointer with 12:10 to play in the half.
Then UConn began taking care of the ball better, outrebounding their opponent and forcing the issue with their pressure. Polley hit a 3-pointer in transition, off a live turnover, to finish an 8-0 spurt. UConn continued to pull away with a 14-0 run.
Everyone was in the act, but Gaffney twice fed fellow freshman Bouknight, whose drive to the rim following a turnover capped the surge and gave the Huskies a 32-14 lead with 3:55 left in the half.
The Huskies stretched it out to 23 points on a pair of Akok free throws with 15:13 to play, then the Peacocks, who had been run off the 3-point line, began taking and making some to cut into the UConn lead.
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com