The new year for the UConn men’s basketball team tipped off to an undeniably rough start. There were seven turnovers between both teams in the first four minutes of play; from balls thrown away into the second row to players stepping on the baseline, your typical “preseason” game.
Being without Braylon Mullins on Tuesday meant more opportunities for players to earn minutes. The freshman duo of Colben Landrew and Junior County stepped up to the plate and delivered. After being held scoreless in the first half, County buried three triples in the second half to finish with 9 points.
The sloppy start saw the Huskies go scoreless for the 100 seconds and saw the first field goal come at the 15:21 mark as Duke transfer Nik Khamenia nailed a deep three-pointer. Once he saw that first shot fall, he fired eight more shots in the first half, hitting two more.
Defensively, however, UConn did not disappoint. Forcing nine turnovers in the first half saw Syracuse Head Coach Gerry McNamara irate and the Huskies bench on the other end of the floor loving it.
An important piece for those defensive stops was Stanford transfer Oskar Giltay, who picked up a pair of blocks in the first half. Giltay started at the center position after Hines was seen on the bench pregame with a wrap on his right knee.
Off the bench, Na’Jai Hines was the MVP of the night as he poured in a team-high 17 points on 5-for-7 from the field and 7-for-8 from the charity stripe. The Seton Hall transfer also made an impact on the defensive end, finishing the night with two blocks and a steal. Hines putback layup and alley-oop slam set up by Demary got the Mohegan Sun crowd rocking.
With Tarris Reed and Eric Reibe no longer with the program, the Huskies had to pivot rather quickly to get a new duo of big men. Dan Hurley may have found the answer in Giltay and Hines.
What seemed different from this squad compared to years past is their scrappiness down low, no matter the size. Khamenia and County both picked up two first-half offensive rebounds apiece, which contributed to the 12 UConn offensive rebounds compared to their 11 defensive boards in the first 20 minutes.
UConn went into the halftime locker room with just a five-point lead and came out of the locker room looking like a different team, making sure Syracuse had no hope for the remaining 20 minutes. It looked as if they were ready to play up to the UConn standard.
The shooting picked up as the Huskies shot 12-for-25 in the second half, compared to a not-so-nice 11-for-31 first half.
The Huskies opened the second half on a 10-2 run, quickly pulling away before an 11-3 spurt — capped off by a Hines layup — which brought the crowd to its feet for the first “U-C-O-N-N” chant of the season. Syracuse was suffocated defensively, held to just 5-for-17 shooting during the surge. The defensive intensity picked up as the team held Syracuse to an 8-for-29 shooting in the second half, including defensive coach’s dream, holding the Orange to 1-for-15 shooting from downtown.