HARTFORD - UConn men’s basketball defeated Butler on Tuesday night at PeoplesBank Arena, 79-60. After trailing early, the Huskies mounted a 17-3 run in the middle of the first half to pull away and improve to 11-1 on the season.
The Bulldogs faced a tough non-conference slate, capturing a win over UVA, and won their first Big East game on Saturday in double overtime against Providence.
The Husky offense got things rolling right away on the opening possession, as Silas Demary Jr. found Tarris Reed Jr. for an alley-oop for the game’s first basket. After that fast start, the Bulldogs responded with an 11-2 run to take a seven-point lead into the U-16 timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Huskies went on a quick 7-0 spurt to tie the game with the run being capped off by a nifty find by Eric Reibe to a cutting Solo Ball. Ball had a memorable night, finishing with a career high 26 points on 8-14 shooting.
Braylon Mullins buried the team’s first three of the game to give the team what was at the time its largest lead at 18-14. After a three-point play for Butler, UConn responded with a 12-0 run that was capped off by a steal from Mullins that quickly turned into the freshman’s second triple of the night to make it 30-17. Mullins finished with 12 points.
Defensively, the Huskies stepped it up during this stretch as well, holding the Bulldogs to just two made field goals over the last eight minutes of the half. Butler was forced to take challenging shots deep in the shot clock and struggled around the rim; a credit to UConn’s eight first-half blocks led by a pair each from Reed and Reibe
The Huskies would continue their hot shooting, particularly Ball, and continue to build on their lead. The junior guard knocked down a three from the top of the key on the team’s final offensive possession of the half to expand the lead to 16 and give himself 17 first-half points.
Despite the early struggles, UConn led by 14 points at halftime to comfortably head into the locker room. 35 of the 39 first-half points were scored by Ball, Reed, or Mullins.
The second half featured more of the same offensive flair that the final eight minutes of the first had. Mullins scored a fastbreak euro-step off of a steal, and then after another steal, Ball knocked down another three off an inbounds to give him an even 20 points on the night.
Jayden Ross made his name known in this one with an emphatic putback dunk off a Ball miss that erupted PeoplesBank Arena to its loudest it was all night. The slam pushed the lead over 20 for the first time at 50-29, but the visitors wouldn’t go down quietly and trimmed it down to 14 at the U-12 timeout at 55-41.
Ross responded by knocking down a corner three, but the two teams continued to trade baskets. The Huskies were able to get back-to-back scores during this stretch, as Mullins had a nice finish on a drive and Ross had another highlight reel flush, going with a reverse throwdown alone in transition off of a steal.
But still, the Bulldogs didn’t back down. An 8-0 run trimmed the lead down to 11 before Ross put another hammer down on a fastbreak lob from Demary. On the next play, he switched things up and was the distributor of a dunk, finding a wide-open Reed underneath for a two-hand finish that triggered a Butler timeout and extended the lead back to 15.
Demary continued to stuff the stat sheet in the assist column, picking up back-to-back on buckets from Reed and Reibe to get his 10th and 11th dimes of the night, the second clinching a new career high that he previously set on Nov. 23 against Bryant. Reed also had his best game since returning from injury, finishing with 16 points and three blocks.
After fighting all half, the Bulldogs finally stopped chipping away, and the Huskies were able to cruise to the 19-point victory to start conference play off in the win column and check off some notable boxes that had been hindering the team, including being plus-18 on the glass and swatting 13 shots.
Next up, the Huskies head on the road for the first time in Big East play, traveling to Chicago to take on DePaul on Sunday night at Wintrust Arena. Tip-off will be at 4:30 p.m. EST on FS1.
Led by Chris Holtmann, the Blue Demons are 8-4 with a key win in non-conference play over Georgia Tech and notable losses including LSU, Northwestern, and St. John’s. They’re ranked 121st in KenPom overall efficiency (177th Offense, 75th Defense).
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