The No. 3 UConn men’s basketball team (18-1, 8-0 Big East) has flirted with danger lately. In a rivalry game, the Georgetown Hoyas (9-9, 1-6 Big East) sought revenge and nearly upset the Huskies at Capital One Arena on Saturday.
“We willed it; we gutted it out,” Dan Hurley said after the game.
Connecticut’s offense struggled, shooting a season-low 36.2% from the floor and 19.2% from three. Georgetown, on the other hand, shot 43.9% and 35.7%
“Offensively, we have to be able to trust the work we put in, especially during practice, knowing that we play a lot of off-script basketball,” Tarris Reed Jr. said. “We didn’t do that as well in the first half—a little bit better in the second half.”
The heart of the team’s scoring on Saturday was Reed, who had a strong first four minutes of the game with 11 points, but did not score again until the 14-minute mark in the second half and finished the day with his 13th-career double-double and his second this season. He scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed 14 rebounds on 5-of-11 shooting. Those 11 boards were huge, especially considering eight of them came on the offensive glass.
“The guy’s a force,” Hurley said. “For us to go where we want to go, we need him to be an All-American level center.”
After a 10-2 start to the first half, Georgetown answered and cut a 10-point lead down to four at halftime. From the 1:48 mark in the first half to the 15:27 mark in the second half, UConn was held scoreless until Silas Demary Jr. scored the team’s first four points of the second half.
Connecticut’s offense is at its peak when Solo Ball is shooting the ball well. Lately, he has gone into a slump, missing all five 3-point attempts and finishing with 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting.
“Solo’s been dealing with a wrist [injury], and it’s on his shooting hand,” Hurley said, adding that Ball is a “warrior” and that “some players in college basketball wouldn’t be playing through” the injury. “I thought he made some great plays today, digging the ball out.”
Overall, the Huskies’ 3-point shooting has been abysmal. UConn shot just 5-of-26 from deep and is trending in the wrong direction offensively in the heart of Big East play. On KenPom, Connecticut dropped to 35th in adjusted offensive efficiency and now has a lower 3-point percentage than last year (34.7%, 134th nationally).
The offense has prevented UConn from putting away these games much earlier than expected. Caleb Williams knocked down a 3-pointer early in the second half to give Georgetown its first lead of the afternoon.
Demary’s 4-straight points, finishing with 12 overall, powered a 9-0 run for UConn, capped by Braylon Mullins knocking down a momentous 3-pointer off a loose ball to put the Huskies back in front.
While the Huskies never trailed the rest of the way, the Hoyas kept themselves in this one. Georgetown got within three points after Arizona transfer KJ Lewis slammed a dunk down in transition with 32 seconds left.
Ball had a chance to give UConn a cushion, but missed both of his free throws, which gave Georgetown a chance to tie the game. Lewis pulled to the top of the key with a deep 3-pointer, but it did not fall in his favor and Mullins’s defensive rebound put him at the line, where he went 1-for-2 and finished with 11 points. Mullins, Ball, Demary and Alex Karaban went 2-of-8 from the charity stripe in the last two minutes of the game.
“Obviously, we had a free-throw meltdown at the end,” Hurley said. “Really, what kind of saved us today is: we were missing a lot, but we weren’t turning the ball over. So, not turning it over actually helped us, because we were able to get second opportunities.”
Vince Iwuchukwu, who had a 12-point, 14-rebound double-double for the Hoyas, slammed a putback dunk down to get his team within two points, but UConn smartly avoided the press and ran the clock out.
“With Vince in there, they’re probably a top-6, top-7 [Big East] team,” Hurley said. “Playing them with him is much different.”
Fouls were plentiful in this game, with a combined 34 called. Reed committed three of his four personal fouls in the second half (one was very questionable), while Demary picked up two of his three fouls in the first half and had to sit on the bench for a while.
“Coach [Hurley] is hard on me about picking up those fouls early,” Demary said. “The impact I have on the team really helps us get going…Coach got into me at halftime, and the guys kind of picked me up. I let the team down…I gotta be smarter and more aware.”
For Georgetown: backup center Julius Halaifonua fouled out, Lewis had four fouls and Malik Mack had three fouls.
Overall, there is a lot of film to watch for UConn in the coming week, with the next game not until Saturday in Hartford against Villanova.
“Rebounding is still an issue for us; taking care of the ball is an issue for us,” Hurley said. “But the team’s got a lot of growth to get better.”
Hurley is now 11-0 against the Hoyas, UConn extends its lead to 41-36 in the all-time series and the Huskies are now 6-0 on the road this season. Since returning to the Big East, Connecticut has never lost to Georgetown and remain the fourth-hottest team in the country with a 14-game winning streak. Some of the wins are not perfect, but UConn can rise to No. 2 in Monday’s AP Poll.
“I don’t think our fanbase, or anyone, should be nitpicking 18-1,” Hurley said. “Saturday at home, I want to see an amazing crowd.”