HARTFORD – The UConn men’s basketball team began its Big East opener with an electric alley-oop dunk to Tarris Reed Jr., but the three minutes that followed were “a total joke,” coach Dan Hurley said, after coming away with a 79-60 win over Butler at PeoplesBank Arena Tuesday night. The Huskies immediately gave up a dunk on the other end, turned the ball over a handful of times and spotted the Bulldogs a seven-point lead before the first media timeout.
“That was just an unacceptable way to start a game for UConn,” Hurley said, “and they heard about it in the huddle.”
The team reasserted its focus on the defensive end and on the glass, and Solo Ball took over.
The junior emptied his bag, hitting all types of shots as he contributed 17 points to the 35-14 run the Huskies went on to close the half. Shooting an efficient 8-for-14 from the field, Ball finished with a career-high 26 points as he helped change the tenor of the game and led the Huskies to 12-1 on the season.
“I kind of just went into the game not trying to focus on scoring,” he said, the performance turning the page on his uncharacteristic shooting slump to start the season. “The first thing I really did was get a block, I was really just trying to focus on my defense today and when I took my mind off scoring, just focused on that, I didn’t have to worry about how many points I’m putting on the board. I was just out there playing and having fun.”
UConn, now even at 20-20 in Big East openers all-time, blocked eight of Butler’s first 18 shot attempts and held the Bulldogs to just 4-for-35 shooting from the field from that first media timeout until the 14-minute mark in the second half. Seven different players contributed to the team’s 13 blocks in the game.
Ball sent the Huskies into the half with a 14-point lead after he scored five-consecutive points in the final minute.
“Watch out,” Hurley said. “He’s gonna get to the mean. The guy, he’s elite. I think this was… Just watch out. I think he’s gonna have a lot of nights like this.”
UConn had four players finish in double-figures as Reed finished with 16 points, five rebounds and three blocks, freshman Braylon Mullins added 12 with two blocks of his own. And Jayden Ross brought the fireworks in the second half as he scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds, constantly injecting energy into the building with splash plays above the rim.
“It was great to see Solo do what he did, that was obviously very encouraging, but I thought Jayden Ross was our most impactful player today,” Hurley said.
Point guard Silas Demary Jr., who fed Ross on a two-handed alley-oop dunk in transition to fend off Butler’s second-half push, directed the Huskies’ offense to 50.8% shooting from the field with a career-high 11 assists.
After a sloppy start with four turnovers on UConn’s first eight possessions, Demary settled in and set the tone with his on-ball defense, helping hold Butler leading scorer Finley Bizjack to just seven points on 2-for-9 shooting from the field. He finished with the best plus-minus on the team at plus-24.
“That kid coming here changed our identity,” Hurley said. “He changed our defense completely just being that point of attack defender that is a ball-hawk. He’s got to stay out of foul trouble, but what he’s done for our defense, he’s the single reason why it went from the dog (stuff) it was last year to now a defense that’s gonna have an opportunity to be good enough to win a championship.”
Used to a bit of physicality after two years in the SEC at Georgia, Demary was prepared for a night like Tuesday, which was as physically intense of a Big East battle as it gets with bodies flying all over the court, players scratching and clawing for every rebound.
Ross excelled in the environment, grabbing offensive rebounds on back-to-back possessions early in the second half. He came down with the first one underneath the basket and layed it in for a second-chance bucket, then defied gravity on the second as Ball put up a 3-pointer and he flew in undeterred from the corner for a one-handed putback that will exist on highlight reels for years to come.
“Solo obviously draws a lot of attention and it just left a lane for me to go clean it up,” Ross said. “The rest is history.”
Butler started the second half 0-for-11 from the field as the Huskies’ lead grew to as many as 23 points, but the first make, a 3-pointer from Evan Haywood, sparked a barrage from deep and the Bulldogs made three in a row to cut into their deficit.
The difference was trimmed to just 11 before Demary found Ross for an alley-oop slam and Ross then fed Reed for another flush to go up 15 with seven minutes to play.
UConn finished the game with a 47-28 advantage on the glass as Ross and Eric Reibe (six points, seven rebounds, four blocks) cleaned up inside. Butler came into the game ranked 10th in the nation averaging 43.4 rebounds per game.
“I just wish there was more killer instinct,” Hurley said. “Put a team down, bury a team. We had chances to do it and then it would go from 23 to 11, or up to 18, back to 14. Just, this team’s got to get a killer instinct… This is supposed to be, this year, a basketball gang that gives absolutely everything they have in pursuit of a championship. You can’t do that unless you are a relentless rebounding team.”
The Huskies will travel to DePaul on Sunday (4:30 p.m., FS1) for their second true road game of the season before a short holiday break.
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