HARTFORD – UConn men’s basketball tore through its second opponent of the season, devastating UMass Lowell, 110-47, as Tarris Reed Jr. made an immediate impact in his season debut, scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 boards in just 17 minutes.
After sitting out the two exhibitions and the opener, Reed Jr. grabbed a defensive rebound on the first possession and then grabbed an offensive rebound on the other end to lay in a putback for the first points of the game.
Seven Huskies finished in double-digit scoring as they hit 61 percent of their shots on the night, notching 27 assists on 42 field goals. UConn dominated the glass and scored 30 points off turnovers and 62 points in the paint.
The Huskies started off on an 11-0 run and got it to 37-2 as the River Hawks went 13:40 into the game before hitting a field goal when forward Austin Green’s second-chance hook shot made it 48-7.
It was 64-17 at halftime as seven Huskies had six or more points at that point and 10 played through the first 20 minutes. It was a program record 47-point halftime lead, beating the previous high of 40 set against Wagner in 1998.
The rout continued through the second half as UConn’s final margin of 63 threatened the program record of 70 set against CCSU in 1996.
Silas Demary Jr. finished with 16 efficient, hard-earned points as the Huskies’ second-leading scorer, adding a team-high seven assists. Solo Ball and Malachi Smith scored 14 points each and at different points each drove spurts of this 40-minute track meet.
Alex Karaban finished with 13 points while Jaylin Stewart added 10 and also dished out six assists. Reed Jr. notched his 11th career double-double and fifth 20-10 game as a Husky.
Next up, UConn is back in Storrs on Monday night to host Columbia, the Ivy League squad that started its season with a win over the Huskies’ first opponent, New Haven, 71-53. Tip-off will be at 6:30 p.m. on FS1 from Gampel Pavilion.
After that, the Huskies take on BYU, currently ranked no. 8 in the AP Poll and 17th in KenPom, at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday, November 15th.
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