UConn Hoops: Huskies edge Marquette for top-10 sweep
Top 10 wins are tough to come by on the road. Don’t believe me? Just ask the UConn men’s basketball team. Before Wednesday, they brought home two national championships since the last time they won a top 10 game on the road. I’ll leave answering the question of whether it’s easier to win a title as the Huskies or win a top 10 game on the road to other experts. But their best chance to do so again came in Milwaukee, WI against No. 8 Marquette.
The Golden Eagles are no easy out, except for the time they played against the Huskies in Hartford. UConn won by a whopping 28 points, but Wednesday was Marquette’s chance to prove they belong in the same conversation as the Huskies. And then their best player, Tyler Kolek, was announced to be sidelined for at least the rest of the regular season. A tough blow against one of the top two teams in the country.
Connecticut looked the part in a 74-67 triumph at Fiserv Forum, but Marquette showed grit. Even as UConn capitalized on the host’s errors, It was a game up until the very end. Both sides shot an identical 43% from the field, but UConn’s 13-26 mark from deep aided them heavily, along with their dominance on the boards. They moved the ball better to the tune of over 2x more assists than the Eagles, which isn’t surprising when considering the loss of their point guard.
Tristen Newton kicked the scoring off for the Huskies, accounting for the contest’s first five points. But then Connecticut went silent. A slew of buckets from Stevie Mitchell and Oso Ighodaro helped the Golden Eagles score 12 unanswered, leaving UConn in an early hole.
Staying composed, like a team that’s been in every situation imaginable, the Huskies delivered a sound answer. Cam Spencer dropped in a trey and Alex Karaban added two more of his own, giving the visitors the lead right back.
Karaban broke out of his offensive slump in a tremendous way, coming off four games where he shot a combined 4/22. He was 5/9 from distance, contributing to a game-high 23 points. Karaban had been quieter against signature opponents since doing well against current No. 7 UNC back in December, but an outing like this shushes that critique. Without the forward playing the way he did, who knows if the Huskies come back home with a win.
Just a moment later, disaster struck for Marquette, as Ighodaro picked up his second foul of the evening. He was forced to take a seat on the bench and the Huskies capitalized. They scored 12 of the contest’s next 15 points, putting them in the driver’s seat.
Even as Ighodaro reentered, the Golden Eagles were facing a double-figure deficit. They went into the locker room down 11, which was pretty good given how well Connecticut was playing.
Every punch the Eagles tried to deliver early in the second half, UConn responded. When they cut the Huskies’ lead to 7, Spencer hit a fadeaway jumper at the shot clock horn. And Karaban’s three brought them back ahead by 12. Spencer drilled his fifth triple of the night soon after, but picked up a technical as he let the Marquette bench know about it.
That error was a costly one for Connecticut, as it was Spencer’s third foul and his fourth came in the following minutes. It threw off the team’s flow, allowing Marquette to score 5 straight. Chipping into the lead slowly but surely, the Golden Eagles did a good job of taking UConn out of any offense.
The Huskies went over three minutes without converting and Marquette reduced the deficit to 5. With a chance to make it a one possession game, David Joplin turned it over to Spencer and it was curtains for the home side.
With Spencer, there is an element of living and dying by his intensity. He’s a fiery player which leads to his success, so asking him to turn that intensity down when dealing with other players or the crowd can be difficult. As responsible as he was for helping the Huskies build their lead and keep it, he would have been more at fault if they had lost.
Either way, they didn’t lose and Spencer was efficient. He shot 6/10 from the field and 5/9 from downtown, helping him towards his total of 17 points. He stuffed the stat sheet in its entirety, with 8 boards, 6 assists and 3 steals to go along with his scoring.
The other three starters didn’t play particularly poorly, but didn’t have games to remember either. Clingan had a strong outing on the glass on both ends with 12 rebounds, but couldn’t turn it into many points, despite trying (3/9 from the field).
Newton had a strong first few minutes but wasn’t amazing afterwards, missing some threes he’d normally make. He didn’t do much direct facilitating with two assists, but did a nice job getting the ball moving, with a few hockey assists.
Castle’s 2/9 shooting night left much to be desired, as many of those misses were at the rim. Most of his better games have been followed up by rougher ones on the offensive end, still demonstrating that there’s room to grow.
Thankfully for them, Hassan Diarra and Jaylin Stewart were great factors off the bench. Diarra added 9 points and hit a huge three, while Stewart made his presence felt with a big block on the defensive end.
It’s incredible how deep the Huskies are, given how many players didn’t perform to their potential. Newton, Castle and Clingan all had nights they’d likely want to improve upon and they still collected a top 10 win. Connecticut can win in so many different ways that any team they face will be shaking in their sneakers.
UConn’s chance to close out what could be their best regular season since 2006 or 2009 (take your pick) comes at the AMP against Providence this Saturday.
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