PROVIDENCE, R.I. —Providence forward Bryce Hopkins was fouled on a fast break with the Friars leading UConn by nine points in the second half of Wednesday’s game at Amica Mutual Pavilion. As he stood at the free throw line, a packed-house of about 14,000 remained on its feet, where a Devin Carter step-back 3-pointer seconds earlier had them already.
“MVP! MVP!”
The hostile crowd roared.
Hopkins, the 6-foot-8 sophomore transfer from Kentucky aggressively pursued the paint as if nothing could slow him. He drew fouls and still finished through contact – he also made both of his 3-point attempts on the way to a team-high 27 points on 6-of-12 shooting for Providence and added five rebounds and a block.
Dan Hurley, searching for a solution, even played Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan on the court together at times – a rarity through the first 15 games.
In the first half, the Huskies battled the weaknesses they found in the first loss of the season Saturday at Xavier and worked on in practices since. Driving aggressively into the paint was point guard Tristen Newton, who played a key role in the ball movement to get Alex Karaban a straightaway 3-pointer and later quieted the sold out crowd with a contested layup that reclaimed the lead.
Hurley has said he won’t take a player off the court if he’s playing well. When Clingan entered the game about seven minutes in and dominated with a considerable size advantage on both ends of the court, Hurley made the decision to keep him on.
The 13-foot, 11-inch frontcourt combo played together for just under four minutes in the first stint. Almost immediately, a Clingan steal led to a Sanogo fast-break dunk, assisted by Jordan Hawkins. On the Huskies’ next possession, Newton found Clingan for his second slam of the game and Sanogo followed with a pretty turnaround jumper inside the paint that brought the Huskies ahead, 19-14, with about eight minutes until halftime.
A scoring burst from Hopkins, a smooth 3-pointer and a fancy move in the paint that got him past Karaban for an open layup, tied the game at 20 before Sanogo toughed his way through contact down low to put the Huskies back up.
A pair of Providence 3-pointers as time expired, with Clingan and Sanogo together again, gave the Friars a 33-30 halftime lead.
Providence played tight on-ball defense around the perimeter, forcing UConn away from the 3-point barrage it had become accustomed to. UConn, playing the road villain and wearing black jerseys for the first time this season, ‘HUSKIES’ across the chest, settled business inside the paint where 22 of the first 30 points came from.
It was the Hopkins show to start the second half. He went at Karaban, forcing UConn’s redshirt freshman into foul trouble as he scored 11 points from the free throw line in the latter period.
Defensively strong inside and out, the Friars tested UConn early in the second half as the Huskies made a speedy entrance into the bonus with eight fouls in the first seven minutes after the break. After an emphatic fast-break dunk from Providence center Ed Croswell, the Friars extended their lead to eight with 11:20 to go.
As the whistles whistled, UConn watched a deficit it had cut to five grow back to nine with 3:33 left, when the crowd broke into a Taylor Swift singalong.
The UConn men, playing in front of fans in Providence for the first time in nearly a decade, since the original Big East days, watched as the deficit grew larger and the students in attendance began to party.
As a team, UConn shot 36.1% from the field and made 5-of-22 from deep while being outrebounded, 40-38.
Hawkins led the Huskies in the scoring column with 15 points while Clingan finished with a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double. Sanogo and Karaban each finished with 11.
The Huskies (14-2, 3-2) return to Gampel Pavilion for a noon tip-off against Creighton on Saturday, a chance for Hurley (0-5 against Creighton as UConn’s coach) to pick up his first win over the Bluejays.
