HARTFORD — PeoplesBank Arena hosted a pair of season openers for the UConn basketball program on Monday night. After a dominant win from the No. 2 UConn’ women’s basketball team, the second leg featured the No. 4 UConn men’s basketball team going up against the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs, featuring a late tipoff at 9 p.m. Just like the women, the men dominated the night, winning 86-46.
Braylon Mullins, despite dealing with an undisclosed lower body injury, led the game in scoring with 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting, including 4 triples. The Indiana native was seen riding the exercise bike while sporting braces on each of his knees.
UConn held all Bulldog scorers to under double figures, as their leading scorer, Jacob Hudson, finished the night with 9 points, 7 of which came in the first half.
Na’jai Hines earned the starting spot for UConn, as he and fellow transfer Oskar Giltay each performed well during the preseason, but Hines was ultimately given the nod. During the preseason, the pair of big men each played about 50/50; however, Hines saw the floor for 22 minutes compared to Giltay’s 17. Hines finished the night with a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds, to Giltay’s 5 points and 3 rebounds.
The late start didn’t seem to affect the Huskies, as they came out of the gates firing, opening up the game with an 8-0 scoring run. A turnaround flip shot from Duke transfer Nik Khamenia gave UConn their first points of the season. Khamenia etched himself into the starting lineup after coming off the bench for the Blue Devils in 33 of his 38 appearances with the team.
The Bulldogs started out 0-for-5 shooting until the 15:40 mark, when Tayshuan Wells picked up an offensive rebound off a three-pointer for a layup.
The freshman duo of Colben Landrew and Junior County checked in at the 13:54 mark. With focus on County at the top of the key, the Bulldogs left Mullins wide open in the corner, where he knocked down his first of many triples of the season. In his first 7 and a half minutes, Mullins scored 7 points on 3-for-5 shooting, including a fastbreak slam to get the crowd buzzing.
Silas Demary, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year awardee, did not get into the scoring column until the 3:16 mark in the first half, let alone attempt a shot. Still, the senior was an efficient +14 at the time. His first shot attempt came with just under 90 seconds to play in the first half, making a layup to extend UConn’s lead to 21.
The Huskies went into the first half break leading 43-24. Khamenia and Mullins led the team with 9 points each. The Huskies’ three-point shooting started out less than ideal, starting out 2-for-11, just 18% from downtown. Landrew and Mullins were the lone Huskies who made the deep ball early on, with Nils Machowski 0-for-3 and both Khamenia and Jayden Ross 0-for-2. They finished the half 4-of-15, as County and Khamenia made the other pair of triples and overall, 9-of-29.
On the defensive end, UConn forced 7 turnovers. Demary had 2 steals while County, Mullins and Ross had 1 steal. Hines led the team in boards, picking up a team-high 6 rebounds as the Huskies doubled the Bulldogs in the rebounding category, 22-11.
Just like the first half, Khamenia opened the second frame in the scoring column for UConn, making a driving reverse layup. The ensuing possession saw Mullins knock down his second shot from beyond the arc. It wouldn’t be a UConn game without an alley-oop to Ross, as Mullins tossed a perfect pass up top to the high-flying forward as he threw it down to finish the highlight. The Huskies continued the scoring, starting out with a perfect 4-for-4 shooting, with the 10-0 run being capped off by a beautiful no-look pass from Khamenia to Mullins as he stuck the three-pointer from the corner.
The run blew the game wide open, as the lead ballooned to as much as 39 points. UConn held Gardner-Webb to 5-of-23 in the second half, forcing 10 turnovers.
Every Husky saw the floor on Monday night, including sophomore Jacob Ross, who, after not playing a minute last season, officially made his UConn debut.
Monday night’s opener acts as a prelude to Friday’s national championship rematch against No. 16 Michigan at TD Garden. Michigan is coming off an 84-68 win over Oakland on Monday.