PHILADELPHIA – Dan Hurley demanded a championship response, and he got it Saturday.
Three days after the upset loss to Creighton, the fifth-ranked UConn men’s basketball team bounced back with a dominant, 73-63, Big East Conference win over third-place Villanova inside a packed Xfinity Mobile Arena.
It was the team’s most well-rounded performance in a meaningful game this season as all nine Huskies finished with at least four points, two rebounds and one assist.
UConn shot 54.9% from the field and pulled away in the second half on the back of a plus-13 rebounding advantage and a totally different defensive effort from what its head coach lamented after giving up 91 points to a struggling Creighton team on Wednesday. Until the final three and a half minutes, with the game decided and fans pouring out of the building – where UConn has won the last three times it’s visited – the Huskies held Villanova to just 35% shooting.
“Finally our defense – when we didn’t turn the ball over, we played elite-level defense and we were pretty sharp on offense when we got shots on goal,” Hurley said. “Obviously the turnover situation reared its ugly head, but I just thought we rebounded the ball, we guarded, we played offense at a high-level and our depth kicked in. That’s kind of like bulletproof basketball right there.”
Alex Karaban’s 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting was a team-high.
Tarris Reed Jr. poured in 11 points with six rebounds and three blocks, and Braylon Mullins added 10 points with a pair of momentum-building 3-pointers as the Huskies’ game-changing run began at the end of the first half and resumed to start the second. Silas Demary Jr. and Solo Ball added nine a piece and the bench combined to contribute 22 points.
The all-time series between the respected rivals, which dates back to 1941, is now tied at 40-all.
“Fitting for two of the best programs,” Hurley said.
With the Big East regular-season title still up for grabs and Wednesday’s mega-matchup with first-place St. John’s looming, the win added some separation between second and third as UConn improved to 25-3 overall and 15-2 in league play, a half-game behind the Johnnies.
Villanova, still in third as its six-game winning streak came to an end, dropped to 21-6 and 12-4 in the league in its first year under head coach Kevin Willard.
“For the rest of the way here, it’s like, St. John’s is not gonna lose – I imagine – any more than two games, obviously they’re coming to us next. So we can’t afford to lose another game in the regular season in the Big East if we want to win the league,” Hurley said. “And then obviously the Big East Tournament, you lose, you’re done. NCAA Tournament, you lose, you’re done. So this was a playoff game for us today. A must-win game. And it’s the first of three must-win games to end the regular season.”
UConn’s defense was a bit shaky to start as Tyler Perkins scored Villanova’s first eight points off the dribble with ease and the Wildcats combined to make nine of their first 16 shots. But Hurley turned to Jayden Ross, who was plus-16 in 16 minutes, to help slow him down as the Huskies kept pace on offense, making 12 of their first 17 shots.
Neither team could pull away by more than three points until UConn’s bench unit started an 8-2 scoring run, capped by a Jaylin Stewart steal that led to a transition dunk from Ball, forcing a timeout from Willard as the Huskies led by five about 10 minutes in.
Out of their huddle, the Wildcats forced five turnovers over the next four minutes as they went up three with a 12-4 run. UConn finished the game with 14 giveaways.
But Mullins, who had a career-high 25 points in the loss to Creighton, stopped the slide as he came off of a screen to land UConn’s second 3-pointer of the night. The Huskies stepped up defensively to hold Villanova to just two makes on their last 14 shots as they took a slim, 34-32 lead into halftime.
The star freshman kept rolling, earning a friendly bounce on a 3-pointer from the corner to set the tone for the second half.
“We were just able to play our style of basketball that we wanted to. We really locked in on the defensive end and we went through a stretch (of four games) where, defensively, we hadn’t played our best basketball, and that was the most important thing,” Karaban said. “We felt like we started the game not playing the way we wanted to and then closed it the way we wanted to.”
UConn forced five turnovers and five-straight missed shots in the first five minutes of the second half and capitalized, methodically building its lead to 13 points with 15 minutes left on the clock. The bench kept it going as the team grabbed seven of its 10 offensive rebounds and scored nine second-chance points in the second half.
“That’s exactly what we’ve been looking for as a group, just playing to our strengths and playing to our depth as a team,” Ball said. “We know how capable we are as a group and we also know that we’ve got way more stuff to work on in practice and outside of practice in the film room, so we’ve just got to keep getting better on that side. But most importantly I’m glad that we all stepped up tonight. It’s great to see everyone contributing.”
Malachi Smith and Eric Reibe (eight points, five rebounds) found success as a tandem and Stewart landed two 3-pointers, the second giving UConn a 17-point advantage with eight minutes to play.
Villanova’s student section started to clear around the five-minute mark after Reed pushed it to a 21-point UConn advantage. After shooting 30% from the field for most of the second half, the Wildcats made five straight in garbage time to cut their deficit in half.
“The only way that you are able to sleep at night this time of year is if you’re playing as close to bulletproof basketball as possible. You shoot at a high percentage, you don’t turn the ball over, you guard, you rebound the ball, and you’ve got depth on the bench,” Hurley said. “That’s the only way that you could avoid being vulnerable this time of year. And it all showed up for us tonight, except the last two minutes.”
