UConn MBB Postgame Media Availability - Xavier (Hurley, Demary Jr., Reed Jr., Karaban)
HARTFORD- UConn men’s basketball won its 18th straight on Tuesday night, knocking off Xavier at the PeoplesBank Arena, 92-60.
Dan Hurley’s squad was dominant in pretty much every category. Silas Demary Jr. had 17 points and eight assists to set the tone.
Four other Huskies finished in double figures, with Tarris Reed Jr. scoring 14 on a perfect 7-7 from the field while Braylon Mullins added 13, and the bench duo of Eric Reibe and Jayden Ross scored 14 and 11, respectively, as the Huskies shot 57% from the field and had 26 assists on 34 field goals.
UConn (22-1, 12-0) opened the game with a big run and never looked back. It was 10-0 in less than three minutes.
The Musketeers (12-11, 4-8) came into the day fresh off a major comeback win over DePaul on Saturday to erase a three-game skid. Richard Pitino has his team playing right around the middle of the pack in a congested Big East.
After missing four shots on their opening possession, the Huskies caught fire, hitting their next six attempts -- four from Mullins and two from Reed -- to make it 14-2 at the first media timeout.
Silas Demary Jr. connected on back-to-back threes to push the lead to 16 by the next media timeout before a 5-0 run by Stewart extended the advantage. Xavier started the game 2-14 from the field before hitting a couple of shots in a row around the nine-minute mark.
Once the Musketeers woke up, the Huskies quickly put them back to sleep. Xavier hit back-to-back shots, and UConn responded with a 5-0 spurt behind a bucket from Reed and a transition triple from Mullins to trigger Pitino’s second timeout of the half.
Demary hit his third three before a Karaban basket in the lane to push the lead to 50-22 at halftime. In the first half, UConn had assists on 17 of its 19 made field goals.
The foot stayed on the gas out of the locker room. Solo Ball got on the board after sitting most of the first half with foul trouble, knocking down a deep three on the Huskies’ first possession. A few trips later, Demary entered double figures with a nifty finish for a three-point play.
Xavier made a late push, going on a 9-0 run to make it 64-39, but a nice finish from Eric Reibe snapped the streak.
Ross had a big sequence next, connecting on an open three before extending the next trip to allow for a Demary three-point play. Ross had a great day off the bench, hitting three triples and providing a big burst of energy all over the floor. Demary capped off the mini-scoring run for UConn with his first dunk of the season.
The highlight of the night came late in the second half, when Ball found Ross for an alley-oop dunk in transition to put the icing on the cake of a dominant win. A pair of dunks from Reibe was the cherry on top in the closing minutes.
For the second game in a row, deep reserves like Jacob Furphy and Alex Millender made a late appearance as the Huskies closed it out. UConn won by 32 after previously beating Xavier by 23 in Cincinnati.
The Huskies had 30 bench points and knocked down 10 threes. Karaban and Reed were each a +38 in the win, while Demary was a +33. Reed has been perfect from the field for two games in a row, going 4-4 against Creighton.
Next up, UConn has the most anticipated matchup of its Big East schedule against St. John’s on Friday night at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is set for 8:00 p.m. from New York City, and the game will be televised on FOX.
Led by Rick Pitino, the Red Storm entered Tuesday with a 9-1 record in the Big East, ranked No. 22 in the AP Poll. St. John’s has won seven straight games heading into its clash with DePaul on Tuesday night. They’re ranked 21st in KenPom overall efficiency (23rd Offense, 21st Defense).
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