STORRS – The No. 4 UConn men’s basketball team won its 10th-consecutive game in its return to Gampel Pavilion in almost a month, with a routine, 73-57 victory over Marquette.
Solo Ball led the Huskies in scoring for the seventh time this year with 17 points and a season-high eight rebounds. Point guard Silas Demary Jr. paced the Huskies’ offense in the first half and finished with 14 points on 4 of 5 shooting from the field and Tarris Reed Jr. added 13 points, nine rebounds and three assists while contributing two blocks and two steals to another strong team defensive effort.
It was UConn’s sixth-consecutive win over Marquette, which fell to 5-10 and 0-9 against power conference opponents this season.
The Huskies (14-1, 4-0 Big East), back in Gampel Pavilion for the first time since Dec. 5, woke up their sold-out crowd on a quiet Sunday with a series of effort plays from Jaylin Stewart (six points, four rebounds, three assists), who disrupted the Golden Eagles’ struggling offense with a pair of steals and a block into the stands. The Huskies held Marquette to just five made baskets on their first 22 attempts from the field and forced eight turnovers in the first half.
After new football coach Jason Candle and his family were welcomed to a standing ovation midway through the first half, Ball assisted Mullins on a two-handed slam and Demary, who didn’t miss a shot in the first half, connected on his second 3-pointer to put the Huskies ahead, 31-19, with four minutes left before the break.
Neither team shot the ball well, both finishing 5-for-24 (20.8%) from beyond the arc.
Marquette, active on the offensive glass to close the half, put together a 10-3 run to cut its deficit to just five over the next two minutes, but Reed scored the final three points of the half, sending the Huskies into the break up eight with a dunk just before the buzzer.
Ball started the second half with a dunk before becoming just the second Husky to see a 3-pointer fall and later finishing a tough layup through a foul in transition to give UConn its largest lead of the game and open the floodgates. Reed, who set up the Ball highlight with a long outlet pass, finished a putback dunk and Eric Reibe finished a layup through contact to make it a 19-point Huskies’ advantage.
Shots were hard to come by for both teams over a four-minute stretch before Reibe got a layup to fall and Stewart continued to put himself in the right position for a pair of second-chance buckets inside. UConn was just 1-for-10 from beyond the arc in the second half until Mullins hit a step-back triple from the wing to take a 23-point lead with 6:43 to play.
UConn finished the game shooting 42.9% from the field and had double-figure turnovers (11) for the 10th time this season.
Marquette, the worst 3-point shooting team in the Big East, saw its first triple of the second half come from Nigel James Jr. (15 points, 5-for-18 from the field) with less than four minutes to play.
UConn returns to action in Providence on Wednesday, where it will meet a Friars’ team carrying momentum after their road win at St. John’s over the weekend.
