Coming off the disappointing loss against Marquette a week ago, you knew after a week of practice, the UConn Huskies men's basketball team was going to come out and give everything they had.
They did that and more as it was a complete team effort in a 99-78 rout of the DePaul Blue Demons in front of 9,156 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, CT on Tuesday night.
The Huskies improve to 11-4 and pick up Kevin Ollie's first career Big East win (1-1). DePaul falls to 10-6 (1-2).
After being benched in the loss to Marquette for his lack of rebounding effort, DeAndre Daniels bounced back strong. He finished with a career-high 26 points to go along with a team-high tying eight rebounds.
Ryan Boatright added 16 points while Shabazz Napier had a fine all-around game with 16 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four assists. Even Tyler Olander got into the action with 10 points and five rebounds. Enosch Wolf had a nice game off the bench with eight points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.
Brandon Young led all scorers in the game with 35 points and had five assists. One time UConn commit, Cleveland Melvin added 18 points, five rebounds and five blocked shots.
This was by far the best game UConn played all season long.
They dominated the glass outrebounding the Blue Demons 49-29. And every time DePaul tried to get back into it in the second half, UConn responded.
This is the type of effort we expected from the Ollie coached team. We've seen it at times this season but not for 40 minutes like Tuesday night.
They'll need to continue this going forward as the competition in the Big East will get tougher. And that will start on Saturday afternoon when they travel to South Bend, IN for a matchup with the No. 17/16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Tip is scheduled for 2 p.m.
To continue reading, please click on the continue reading button below if you're on the home page.
DePaul Blue Demons @ UConn Huskies 1.8.13 box score
Here are the postgame quotes from UConn head coach Kevin Ollie.
Here are UConn's postgame notes.
Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.
photo credit: richard messina – hartford courant (no. 11 in gallery)
