When the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team takes the floor, it’s pretty much been the Kemba Walker show all season long. Sometimes he’s had help and sometimes he hasn’t. On Saturday afternoon, he had help.
Walker had 22 of his 31 points in the first half as he helped the Huskies to a relatively easy 82-62 win over the DePaul Blue Demons in front of 9,581 at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL.
No. 10/9 UConn moves to 14-2 (3-2 Big East) on the season while the Blue Demons suffer their 18th straight Big East loss (6-11, 0-5).
Walker also added four rebounds, five assists and three steals. Jeremy Lamb had a fine game on both ends of the floor as he had 13 points, six rebounds, four assists, a steal and two blocked shots. After a poor first half, Alex Oriakhi rebounded with 11 points and had five rebounds and three blocked shots.
Roscoe Smith also had nice game with eight points, seven rebounds, two assists and three blocks. Shabazz Napier had just three points but led the Huskies with six assists.
Former UConn commit Cleveland Melvin led the Blue Demons with 25 points and 11 rebounds. The only other member of DePaul in double figures was Moses Morgan who came off the bench to score 11 points.
The Huskies got of the gates quickly in this one as they opened up with a 10-2 run. They built their lead to 11 points at 21-10 over the next four and a half minutes. UConn’s lead would get no higher than 12 points and no lower than eight points until an old-fashioned three-point play by Lamb put the Huskies up 13 points at 38-25.
The lead would hit 15 points on a Walker three with 2:06 remaining but DePaul bounced back with a 6-0 run. But Walker would get out ahead of the Blue Demons press and beat the buzzer with a layup.
DePaul did their best to stay close early on in the second half but UConn’s athleticism was just too much.
The Huskies used a 16-1 run to open up a 25 point lead at 66-41 with about ten minutes remaining. The lead would get as high as 32 points. The Blue Demons however did score the last ten points of the game to provide the final margin.
If Walker can continue to get help on a nightly basis, this could turn into a really special season for the Huskies. If he doesn’t, it’s quite possible someone could figure out how to stop him and UConn could be in a little bit of trouble. But until that actually happens, they’ll just continue to ride Walker and hope for the best from the supporting cast.
It’s a very quick turnaround for the Huskies as they’ll head back home to Gampel Pavilion for a Monday afternoon MLK Day matchup with the No. 7 Villanova Wildcats. Game time is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and the game will be nationally televised on ESPN.
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Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ DePaul Blue Demons 1.15.11 box score
The starters for the Huskies were Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Roscoe Smith, Tyler Olander and Alex Oriakhi.
Walker’s 31 points matched his career-high for Big East conference play.
DePaul hasn’t won a Big East game since it beat Marquette 51-50 on January 20, 2010.
The Huskies shot 50.9% (28-55) from the floor while DePaul shot 31.9% (22-69).
UConn had 23 assists on their 28 made baskets.
The Huskies shot 35.4% (5-14) from three-point land.
UConn was 21-of-25 (84%) from the charity stripe.
Despite losing by 20 points, DePaul won the battle of the boards 44-36. Because of that advantage, they outscored the Huskies 17-4 on second chance points.
UConn outscored the Blue Demons 44-26 in the paint and 20-4 on the fast break.
The Huskies had 16 points off of 12 DePaul turnovers. The Blue Demons had 16 points off of 10 UConn turnovers.
Photo credits: Bettina Hansen – Hartford Courant (No. 23, No. 16)
