STORRS, Conn. — It wasn’t pretty, but the 20th-ranked UConn men’s basketball team used a second-half sprint to avoid another upset against Seton Hall, winning 64-55 in Gampel Pavilion on Saturday.
Despite an off day shooting from deep, UConn’s Jordan Hawkins used his refreshed legs after the week without games to make several highlight-reel finishes, including a pair of dunks that excited the crowd in Storrs. Though he made just three of his 11 shots from beyond the arc, Hawkins finished with a game-high 20 points.
Seton Hall’s disruptive pressure on the perimeter caused issues for the Huskies at the start of the game. UConn committed five quick turnovers as Seton Hall went running to take a four-point lead seven minutes in. UConn responded with its own defensive intensity and Donovan Clingan began a dunk contest at the 12:45 mark.
Including Clingan’s dunk, his 33rd of the season, 10 of the game’s next 14 points were scored above the rim. Hawkins soared for a highlight, then Andre Jackson caught an alley-oop and K.C. Ndefo answered by throwing one down on the other end. Once Clingan flushed his second of the game, Hawkins took his talents to the 3-point arc to give the Huskies a 21-16 lead around the nine-minute mark.
UConn built its lead to as many as 11 twice, but made just one of its last 11 shots from the field heading into halftime as Seton Hall, also struggling to score, got within six at the buzzer, 33-27.
Though Hawkins was fouled on a 3-point attempt to start the second half, which happens just about every game, UConn continued to struggle to get anything going offensively. The Huskies, having difficulty inbounding the ball, turned the ball over three times in the first four minutes of the second half as Al-Amir Dawes brought the Pirates within two.
UConn shot just 4 for 22 from the 3-point line for the game, but clawed away from the Pirates slowly. Hassan Diarra, after making a layup of his own and grabbing an offensive rebound on a missed 3-pointer from Jackson, passed it back as Jackson cut hard to the basket for his third dunk of the game.
Jackson finished the game with 15 points, reaching double-digits for the first time since he had 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in the first loss of the season at Xavier on New Year’s Eve. He added 10 rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal.
A 14-0 scoring run beginning around the middle of the second half for the Huskies coincided with a Seton Hall scoring drought that lasted nearly seven minutes.
Hawkins had the sold-out Gampel Pavilion crowd on its feet when he landed his third 3-pointer of the game, extending UConn’s lead to 16 points with 6:02 left. Seton Hall, refusing to go away, capitalized on a series of Huskies turnovers to cut the UConn lead down to six with a minute to go. Jackson scored his 14th and career-high 15th point at the foul line to put the game out of reach.
The win jumps UConn into fifth place in the Big East standings and marks the program’s second consecutive 20-win season.
UConn (20-7, 9-7 Big East) welcomes No. 24 Providence to campus for Senior Night and a “white-out” on Wednesday, the game beginning at 6:30 p.m.
