Despite win, UConn still searching for consistency
Storrs — Coppin State arrived less than an hour before Saturday's scheduled tip.
Blame the late arrival on the snowy roads around Storrs.
UConn wait- ed well past the opening basket to show up and then battled bouts of inconsistency.
Blame it on a variety ongoing issues.
The Huskies still managed to secure a 72-59 victory before 3,046 fans at Gampel Pavilion. They take a 7-3 record into an 11-day exam break.
The search for a complete allaround performance continues.
"Sooner rather than later, that time is going to have to come," sophomore Christian Vital said. "The teams that we're about to play, they're not going to allow us to get away with those moments when we basically have dead moments out there, having three to five minute spurts where we're not defending and we're not scoring.
"Those are two points of emphasis that we're going to really need to
work on. We're young and we're still learning. But we're not going to feel sorry for being 7-3 when you look at our schedule."
The schedule stiffens when the Huskies return from the break, taking a two-game road trip to Arizona and Auburn on Dec. 21 and Dec. 23, respectively. Then they host No. 6 Wichita State on Dec. 30 in their American Athletic Conference opener in Hartford.
Good thing Coppin State (0-10), a team that had lost by an average of 23.6 points, was their opponent Saturday. Playing just about any other team would have likely resulted in a different outcome.
The Huskies seized a five-point advantage at halftime — they had trailed in each of the last five games — but couldn't build a comfortable margin. The lead stood at just seven with just under five minutes left. Vital scored five of the team's last six points to close it out.
Junior Jalen Adams had a teamhigh 15 points and a season-high eight assists while redshirt junior Terry Larrier, who didn't start for the first time this season due to a team matter, added 14 points and Vital chipped in 13 points and seven rebounds. "We're going to get better," coach Kevin Ollie said. "This is not a sprint, it's a marathon. There's going to be some ups and downs. But I believe in my players and I believe in my coaching staff. We've just got to keep getting better."
For the second game in a row, the Huskies allowed a player to score his career-high. This time it was junior Lamar Morgan, who easily topped his scoring average with 30 points (he made seven 3-pointers).
"We weren't finding him," Ollie said. "Our one-on-one defense, we're not keeping our man in front. When we collapse, then they find Morgan. ... We can't allow guys to get their career highs against us."
Fixing defensive issues will be high on the list during the exam break. So will be cutting back on careless, unforced turnovers.
Turnovers were an issue from the start, as the mistake-prone Huskies committed four in the first three minutes and fell behind 11-3 before fighting back. They ended up with 15 overall, including four by Vital.
"There weren't pressing and they weren't overplaying and we made 15 turnovers," Ollie said. "I just want our guys to have poise. We're just going to keep working on it."
The Huskies did show some encouraging signs.
They dominated the boards, finishing with a 50-26 edge. They had season-highs for offensive rebounds (21) and second chance points (21). Reserves contributed some energy as well as production, scoring a combined 35 points. Forward Isaiah Whaley had eight points and a career-best eight rebounds after playing just two minutes in the previous three games, while fellow freshman Josh Carlton added a career-high seven rebounds and five points in 13 minutes.
"We're going to play with the guys that have got juice," Ollie said.
Whaley and other frontcourt reserves got opportunities because redshirt freshman Mamadou Diarra and junior Eric Cobb, who started together for the first time this season, were ineffective.
Tougher days are ahead for the Huskies.
"We don't feel bad about ourselves," Adams said. "We just know we can't play down to our competition. We know what we're getting ourselves into. After break when we get ready to head to Arizona, we know we have to step it up a notch." g.keefe@theday.com