Watch postgame press conference (Hurley, Ball, Demary Jr., Reed Jr.)
STORRS - UConn men’s basketball defeated Marquette on Sunday afternoon at Gampel Pavilion, 90-67. The Huskies have now started out 4-0 in Big East play for the second consecutive season and used a 26-9 run from the end of the first half through a majority of the second half to blow the game open.
Jayden Ross was out for the second straight game with a hamstring injury, but everyone else was available, as eight Huskies had at least three points in the win. Solo Ball had a game-high 17 points to lead UConn, while Silas Demary Jr. and Tarris Reed Jr. were both in double figures with 14 and 13 points, respectively. The Huskies shot 43% for the game, 27-63 from the field.
The Golden Eagles entered with a 5-9 record, winless in league play. Shaka Smart has the team battling, but the results haven’t been even close to their preseason expectations.
Coming in, it was clear that a focal point offensively for the Huskies was going to be their play inside on the low block. They went to Tarris Reed Jr. for the first four points of the game underneath. 10 of the first 12 points for UConn were scored in the paint, the final two coming on a monster slam from Eric Reibe on a slick feed from Silas Demary Jr.
With all of the success inside early, the shots from behind the arc weren’t falling at first. The Huskies missed their first five threes before Demary buried one from the right wing. At the under-12 timeout, UConn led 16-10 and was dominating on the defensive end, allowing Marquette to just three field goals up to that point.
UConn had six dunks in the first 20 minutes by five different players. Jaylin Stewart had one to push the lead up to nine at 22-13, and the next two field goals the Huskies hit were eerily similar baseline jams from Alex Karaban and Braylon Mullins.
Demary hit his second three, the only two the team hit in the first half, to push the lead to its largest of the first half at 12. From there, Marquette would go on a 10-3 run to cut it back down to five before Reed hit a free throw and beat the halftime buzzer with a slam on a dime from Malachi Smith to make it 37-29 at the break.
Solo Ball quickly became the sixth Husky to throw down a dunk early in the second half as Reed found him underneath. Ball had a big start to the second half, scoring seven points, including his first three in the first 5:15 of the period. He had an acrobatic layup through contact on a great full-court heave from Reed to send Gampel Pavilion into a frenzy, as well as give the Huskies a 48-33 lead.
The Huskies kept pouring it on in the second half, growing their lead the whole half. Reed found Stewart with a pretty extra pass right before the U-8 timeout to extend the lead to 20 for the first time at 58-38. Through the first 12 minutes in the second, UConn outscored Marquette 21-9 to officially blow the game open.
Mullins knocked down his first three of the game on the next possession and followed that up with a heat check shot in transition from the logo that clanked off the back of the rim. Even though it didn’t fall, it shows the confidence he has in his shot, which will be critical for the Huskies as the season progresses.
UConn continued to cruise the rest of the way, with a stretch of four straight points from Ball before the final media timeout, the icing on the cake of another win. Those points from Ball made it 67-44 with less than four minutes remaining.
Both sides traded scores over the past couple of minutes before reaching the 73-57 final as UConn knocked off Marquette to ring in to the new year.
Next up, the Huskies head on the road, traveling to Rhode Island to take on Providence on Wednesday night at Amica Mutual Pavilion. Tip-off will be at 7 p.m. EST on Peacock and NBC Sports Network.
Led by Kim English, the Friars are 8-6 with the team’s best win coming this past Saturday when they took down St. John’s in comeback fashion at Madison Square Garden. They’re ranked 63rd in KenPom overall efficiency (43rd Offense, 132nd Defense).
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