STORRS, Conn. — The UConn men’s basketball team dismantled Georgetown 96-73 at Gampel Pavilion on Tuesday night and spread the scoring around in doing it.
The 20th-ranked Huskies (14-4, 5-2 Big East) had five players in double-digit scoring (Adam Sanogo, Jordan Hawkins, R.J Cole, Isaiah Whaley, and Tyrese Martin ). Sanogo led the way with 19 points and eight rebounds. Whaley and Hawkins had 15 points, Martin had 14 and Cole added in 13. In all nine players scored.
Whaley’s impact was seen all over the court. The forward had multiple second-chance points, collected key offensive rebounds, and played with high energy. He added seven rebounds, including six on offense, to his stat line.
Freshman Hawkins was 4-for-7 shooting from the field as he scored in double figures for the second time in in three games. The freshman has struggled to find consistency this season, so this was a positive sign.
Both teams kept pace early with the game tied 5-5 until Jackson’s eyebrow-raising dunk. At the 17:57 mark, Jackson dribbled the ball to the restricted area, rose up, and dunked the ball with ferocity, which caused a crowd roar throughout Gampel. Over the next 6:50, UConn went on an 18-9 run to take a 25-14 lead. Martin led the Huskies with 12 points.
The Huskies’ defense was abysmal in the first half. They allowed the Hoyas to shoot 8-for-13 (61.5%) from beyond the arc and 16-for-30 (53.3%) overall. The Huskies were a step late too often on defensive rotations, let Georgetown shooters get open, and didn’t provide enough resistance when challenging shots. The game was closer than it should have been due to UConn’s defensive woes. The Huskies went into the half with a 52-40 lead.
UConn’s defense tightened up in the second half as it took until 17:06 for Georgetown to finally score on Aminu Mohammed’s layup. The Huskies sad their biggest lead of the night up to that point when Jawkins hit a 3 to put them up by 17 points at 12:13. UConn subsequently took a timeout after the 3. After that, the Huskies started to pull away. Over the next 2:54, they went on a 9-0 run to lead 78-52.
