A second half surge
Huskies pull away from Pioneers behind Carlton, Vital
STORRS — Maybe it was a positive sign for the type of fight and intensity Dan Hurley wants to see from his team.
Maybe it was a bad omen for the team’s shooting ability.
Either way, let the record show that Christian Vital picked up his first technical foul of the season before he or any of his teammates scored their first basket on Friday night.
Things didn’t get a whole lot better for Vital or the Huskies in the first half, as they clung to a threepoint lead at the break. But UConn broke out of halftime with renewed energy, paced by Vital and Josh Carlton, and rolled to an 8967 openingnight victory over Sacred Heart.
Carlton scored the first eight points and 14 of his gamehigh 18 in the second half, while Vital scored 15 of his 17 over the final 20 minutes. Brendan Adams added a careerhigh 15 points, Sidney Wilson 13 and Tyler Polley 10 to pace the Huskies’ wellbalanced attack.
With UConn clinging to a 4037 lead at the break, Carlton scored on a putback of a Vital missed layup to kick off the latter half, followed with an inside hoop, then on a transition layup after Vital hit him in stride with a beautiful, long pass, causing SHU coach Anthony Latina to burn a timeout.
An inside bucket 30 seconds later closed out Carlton’s personal 80 run. Then, Vital took over.
The senior guard, who didn’t make a field goal in the first half, knocked down a long 3pointer, then followed that with a corner trey off an offensive rebound and pass from Polley.
When Vital canned a long, offbalance 3 with
11:43 left, the Huskies had a 6143 lead and were well on their way to victory.
Kinnon LaRose had 13 points and E.J. Anosike 12 to lead Sacred Heart, which had two players foul out, and Jare’l Spellman added 11.
The first half was hardly a thing of beauty. The Pioneers (02) outrebounded UConn by an eyepopping 2813 margin. Eleven of those were offensive boards, leading to 10 secondchance points for SHU.
All this despite the fact that the Pioneers had one player (Zach Pfaffenberger) with four fouls and two others with three, while also turning the ball over a whopping 14 times.
The Huskies had yet to score a field goal when Vital and Pfaffenberger were hit with matching technical fouls just 3:42 into the game. Vital had grabbed
a loose ball and Pfaffenberger tried to slap it away, leading to a brief skirmish and a lengthy review by the officiating crew.
By halftime, Vital and Gilbert — the Huskies’ top two returning scorers — had a combined six points, and Carlton had just four.
That changed rapidly in the second half.
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ Former Amity High star Tyler Thomas of Woodbridge finished with 10 points and five rebounds for the Pioneers.
⏩ East Hartford’s Cane Broome, who began his career at Sacred Heart but played the last two seasons at Cincinnati, was at the game as a fan. Broome is slated to play professionally in Canada starting next month.