UConn men hold off Seton Hall ... and pass Hurley’s toughness test
Storrs — UConn coach Dan Hurley questioned his team’s toughness during preseason.
Hurley repeated his concern several times in recent months, including Friday, the day before hosting Seton Hall, which was clearly the tougher team while winning the first meeting by a point on Jan. 18.
That’s why Hurley was thrilled with his team’s response in a physical, grind-it-out Big East contest on Saturday before a sold-out crowd at Gampel Pavilion.
With its offensive sputtering, No. 20 UConn did the dirty work, relying on a tenacious defense and relentless effort on the boards to hold off Seton Hall, 64-55, to record its 20th win for the second straight season.
“I was really happy to see us win a toughness game,” Hurley said. “We’ve lost these types of ugly, mud fight type of games, physically, choppy type of games.”
A lack of toughness has cost them at times this season. They entered Saturday’s game 3-5 in games decided by single digits.
This time, the Huskies (20-7, 9-7) wrestled their way to an important win that enabled them to leap-frog over the Pirates (16-12, 9-8) into fifth place in the Big East standings. They survived after a 16-point lead dipped to just six with just over a minute left.
Sophomore Jordan Hawkins hit big shot after big shot on his way to a game-high 20 points while junior Andre Jackson provided a rare offensive spark, finishing with a career-high 15 points to go with 10 rebounds.
Junior Hassan Diarra, a disruptive presence on defense, and freshman Donovan Clingan (six points, six rebounds) made valuable contributions off the bench.
Ultimately, UConn’s toughness was the difference.
“I feel like a couple of games we dropped this season because we lacked toughness,” Diarra said. “It was a grind-it-out game. Seton Hall is a very good team, a very tough team. We showed our grit today so we got the win.”
The Huskies limited the Pirates to 39.6 percent from the field and won the battle of the boards, 39-25. They won for the fourth time in five games.
“We looked like a top rebounding team and we looked like a really good defensive team,” Hurley said. We’re in a good spot to create momentum in the last four games.”
In the first meeting at Seton Hall, UConn blew a 14-point halftime lead and lost on a last-second basket.
The Huskies led by six (33-27) at the break on Saturday and then seized control about eight minutes into the second half.
Clinging to a two-point lead, the Huskies went on a 14-0 run and held the Pirates without a basket for six minutes, 50 seconds.
Seton Hall called a timeout with 5:50 remaining after Hawkins hit a 3-pointer for a 56-40 lead, UConn’s largest of the game. The Huskies converted just four of 22 from beyond the arc.
“That was an early kill shot,” Hurley said.
The Huskies gradually seized the upper hand thanks to their defense, which held the Pirates scoreless for 6:50 during one stretch.
Coming off their worst scoring and shooting (32.3 percent) in a 56-53 loss at Creighton on Feb. 11, the Huskies continued to struggle offensively. They went almost nine minutes without a field goal from just under five minutes left in the first half to the 15:41 mark of the second half.
Hawkins, who went 7 for 17 from the field, ended the drought with a driving layup.
With his jump shot a bit off, Hawkins took an aggressive approach, twice finishing off drives to the basket with thunderous dunks.
“Shot wasn’t falling today so I had to attack the rim and try a different way to score,” Hawkins said.
The Huskies never trailed in the second half.
Late turnover trouble – five straight at one point and 18 overall – allowed Seton Hall to cut the gap to 61-55 with 24 seconds left. But UConn held on.
Jackson helped bail out the Huskies, who needed another offensive source with leading scorer Adama Sanogo not at full percent. Sanogo missed practice time this week due to a non-COVID illness and finished with eight points and six rebounds.
Jackson scored the majority of his points by going to the basket.
“He put it all together today,” Hurley said.
Up until Saturday, Jackson had scored in double figures in only four games, failing to do so in the last 11. He came in averaging 5.8 points and shooting 35.7 percent.
Opponents have basically backed off guarding Jackson when he’s on the perimeter.
“At the beginning of the week, I had a meeting with the coaches about different ways to attack with the way they’re guarding me,” Jackson said. “I really just stuck to that and found my spots on the court that they told me to get to and it turned out to be one of my better scoring performances of my career. Definitely going to stick to that.”