MILWAUKEE — The No. 6 UConn men’s basketball team didn’t find a solution for its home sickness as it dropped a third straight road game in Big East play, this time to No. 25 Marquette, 82-76, on Wednesday.
Trailing by eight with 94 second left, Jordan Hawkins made his first 3-pointer of the game to cut it to five. He then stole the ball on the other end and was fouled, made both shots at the line to cut the deficit to three. But a 3-pointer by the Golden Eagles’ Kam Jones put the Huskies out.
UConn hasn’t won a true road game against a ranked opponent in nearly nine years. The last time was Jan. 16, 2014 over No. 17 Memphis at FedEx Forum.
The best player on the court all night for the Huskies was true freshman Donovan Clingan, who came off the bench to score 20 points with 10 rebounds, five blocks and two steals. Speaking of a need for toughness before the game, both mentally and physically, Clingan brought it.
Inside the paint, he rose up to aggressively swat shots away on one end of the court and leaped just as high on the other for dunks.
UConn’s other scholarship freshman Alex Karaban stepped up with 17 points and seven rebounds, and hit a 3-pointer that brought the game within four with 11 seconds left.
Early on, against Marquette’s suffocating defense, key buckets from Karaban, Adama Sanogo and Andre Jackson kept the score close. But when UConn coach Dan Hurley, with one of the deepest teams in the country, turned to Clingan and his bench the Huskies flipped a five-point deficit into an 11-point lead with a 16-0 scoring run. Over that stretch, Clingan scored six points, grabbed a pair of rebounds, blocked two shots and picked up a steal.
Marquette responded with a 9-0 run when the Huskies’ starters returned to bring the score within two, 31-29. After Sanogo traveled and turned the ball over for his fourth time of the half, Hurley looked back to Clingan. The 7-foot-2 freshman scored three of the Huskies six points to end the half and went to the break up four.
Marquette, led by Oso Ighodaro and Olivier-Maxcence Prosper in the frontcourt, shot 60% from the field in the second half and held UConn to 45.2%, outscoring the Huskies by 10 points in the latter period. UConn turned the ball over 16 times, several of which came in the second half, and the Golden Eagles answered with 20 points off the turnovers.
UConn, now 15-3, will have plenty to figure out before its next time on the court, Sunday against St. John’s at the XL Center.
