UConn coach Dan Hurley crept out to center court, puffed his chest out and jumped to connect with Jordan Hawkins on a chest bump after the freshman’s 3 forced a Marquette timeout. The UConn men’s basketball team was finally playing with a swagger Hurley had wanted.
The No. 24 Huskies, led by Adama Sanogo’s 24 points, won with flair, 80-72, against No. 18 Marquette at the XL Center on Tuesday night. Tyrese Martin added in 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field.
Sophomore Sanogo played with deliberate purpose from the tip. He was aggressive early with his shot attempts, and though he started off cold, he slowly found his rhythm. The forward showed off an array of post moves, battled hard on the glass, and commanded defensive attention, leading to open 3s for UConn’s shooters. His presence was felt on both ends of the court. He finished with 15 rebounds and shot 9-for-18 from the field.
Hurley wanted his team to play with energy and passion from the start and the Huskies answered the call. The first half had plenty of highlight-worthy moments, from big-time 3s by Hawkins to Sanogo dunks and more. Each basket seemed to elicit a different celebration by UConn that had the crowd roaring.
UConn (16-6, 7-4 Big East) now moves up to third in the conference behind Providence and Villanova. This completes the season sweep of Marquette after defeating them 78-70 on Dec. 21 at Fiserv Forum. Golden Eagles, now 16-8 and 8-5 in the Big East, drop to fourth in the conference. This was UConn’s first win over a ranked team since its 115-109 victory over Auburn on Nov. 24.
Marquette’s Greg Elliot had 17 points on 5-for-11 from the field.
From tip-off, the game plan for UConn focused on getting Sanogo going early on the offensive end. He had zero points on one shot attempt in the Huskies’ previous game against Villanova. At the 18:09 mark, the forward battled hard to collect the offensive rebound off his miss and scored a tough bucket through a swarm of Marquette defenders. At the 8:04 mark, Hawkins hit a 3 that put UConn up 26-21 and quickly prompted a Golden Eagles timeout. Over the next 2:07, the Huskies went on a 10-3 run to put them up 36-24. After a string of games shooting poorly to start, UConn shot 20-for-34 (58.8%) from the field.
UConn’s defense limited the Golden Eagles from beyond the arc, who shot 4-for-13 from 3. The Huskies limited Marquette’s season-scoring leader Justin Lewis to four points on 2-for-8 shooting from the field. The Huskies went into the half with a 46-36 lead.
Marquette started off the second half with renewed energy. At 13:43, Sanogo missed a wide-open dunk which led to a rebound by Lewis and led to a 3 by Elliot, which prompted a UConn timeout as they led 53-50. The missed dunk led to a five-point swing. After the Golden Eagles cut the lead to one point, UConn seemed to tighten up its defense. The Huskies went on an 8-0 to put themselves up 61-52. Every time Marquette would creep close in score, UConn would answer with a run of its own to give itself some breathing room. With the Huskies leading by six, Martin hit a tough shot to put them up eight. On the next play, Andre Jackson stole the ball on the inbound pass to put the game away with 1:47 left.
