The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
All tuned up
Huskies roll past NJIT as they prepare for conference play
HARTFORD — One final tuneup on Sunday, sending NJIT back to the swamps of Jersey with a resounding victory.
The slog of December bouts against midmajors is over for UConn. To paraphrase Bill Belichick, it’s on to American Athletic Conference play.
“Now, we get a chance to play for something,” coach Dan Hurley said after the Huskies’ rather routine, 6947 dismantling of NJIT before 10,507 at XL Center. “We get a chance to play in highlevel conference games, and get a chance to try to move this thing forward, attack conference play and try to compete at a high level and have a great season.”
As has become the norm, UConn’s defense was the key on Sunday. The Huskies (93) held NJIT to 32.7percent shooting. Akok Akok was his usual force at the low post, swatting away five shots. Isaiah Whaley added three blocks, and Christian Vital swiped four steals.
Most impressively, UConn held NJIT guard Zach Cooks, who entered the game averaging 23.1 points per game, to a mere 12 points on 4for12 shooting. Cooks, who takes more than 30percent of the Highlanders’ shots, missed all four of his 3point attempts.
“It looked like they were aware of him at all times, for sure,” NJIT coach Brian Kennedy noted.
Credit Alterique Gilbert, for the most part, with hawking the 5foot9 Cooks most of the game and keeping him from ever getting comfortable.
“He probably should have ended up with five, six, seven points, but we let him get loose a little bit late,” Hurley said of Cooks. “He picked up some lazy buckets on our part ... But Al did a great job, and the forwards, for the most part, did a good job, as well.”
On the other end of the floor, UConn hit 11 of 25 3pointers (44 percent), led by Vital, who buried 5 of 8. Vital finished with a gamehigh 23 points in the latest of a growing list of impressive and efficient outings for the senior guard.
Not that Vital, who is now shooting 39.3 percent from the
floor and 36.5 percent from 3 this season, would necessarily agree.
“To be honest, I think I’ve sucked up to this point, pretty much,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you ... I know what I did last year, I was a 45/40percent (shooting) guy, then I put in work this summer to try to improve on that. But, conference play’s coming up, you get a chance to restart and adjust. It helps having talented guys, as well. Our record is still 93 right now, so I’ll take that.”
Brendan Adams added 12 points, Jalen Gaffney doled out a careerhigh seven assists and Akok grabbed a careerbest 10 rebounds. Josh Carlton had his third straight quiet game offensively, but did notch nine boards.
UConn, which never trailed, was pretty much in control from the start. A 130 run that began midway thorough the opening half gave the Huskies a 2710 cushion, and an 80 run put them up 3518 before NJIT (310) closed out the period with a pair of free throws (one of them courtesy of a Hurley technical).
When the Huskies kicked off the latter half on a 143 run, the only drama left was whether sudden benchwarmer Sid Wilson would play (he did) or when fan favorite/walkon Matt Garry would get in (he did, as well, to a thunderous ovation of “Garry! Garry!”).
The Huskies begin AAC play on Wednesday night at old rival Cincinnati. They will be ready.
“We’ll have a chance,” said Gilbeert, “to beat some great teams in our league.”
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ New Haven’s Byron Breland III scored his team’s first basket on a tough, running hook shot over Akok and Carlton, but didn’t do much after that. Breland didn’t score again, missing his next four shots. The 6foot3 freshman guard, who starred at Hillhouse and Hamden Hall, started but played just 11 minutes as Kennedy went with a bigger lineup for most of the second half.
“He probably didn’t have as many minutes or the type of game he wanted to have with his homecoming, but he has a bright future at NJIT,” Kennedy said. “He comes from a terrific family, his mom was a great player at St. John’s. We’re looking forward to a great future from Tre.”
⏩ With victory seemingly in hand and about 10 minutes still left to play, a sizeable portion of the crowd erupted with a “Garry! Garry!” chant, hoping Hurley would put in the walkon from Southington. With 21⁄2 minutes to play, Hurley gave the crowd what it wanted as Garry popped off the bench to the roar of the crowd.
“That was crazy,” said Hurley. “I thought maybe Ray Allen or Kemba (Walker) was at the game and they stood up and got an ovation. They didn’t help his cause with that, because at the freethrow line he had no shot. He was hyperventilating.”
Indeed, Garry had four chances to notch his first career point but missed all four freethrow attempts.
“Matt’s an excellent member of the program,” said Hurley. “He’s a good player. He can really function, I just feel bad he wasn’t able to make a couple because he’s a great kid and a good player.”
⏩ Hurley was ecstatic with the crowd turnout.
“What a lift, getting 10,000plus in here today. Big thanks to the fanbase there, for a postChristmas, preNew Year crowd like that — not for a conference game — that was a huge lift and a great thing to see. We talked about it with the players: As you get better as a program and as you win, the crowds get bigger and better and the games get bigger and better. So that was good to see.”
⏩ Former UConn forward Kentan Facey, a member of the 2014 national championship game, sat behind the Huskies’ bench on Sunday. Bob Hurley Sr., Dan’s father and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, was also in the house. NJIT guard Shyquan Gibbs won a New Jersey state title playing for Hurley Sr. at St. Anthony High.