• Basketball
  • No. 5 UConn MBB Proves Too Much For No. 9 North Carolina To Handle As Huskies Win

No. 5 UConn MBB Proves Too Much For No. 9 North Carolina To Handle As Huskies Win

Details
Basketball

Behind a balanced scoring effort and a staunch second half, the No. 5 UConn men's basketball team (8-1) topped No. 9 North Carolina (7-2) by a score of 87-76 on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic.

Cam Spencer (Davidsonville, Md.) led the Huskies with 23 points and added seven rebounds and six assists.

After taking a five-point lead to the half, the Huskies held North Carolina to 38.9 percent shooting in the second half and went up as many as 17 late. Alex Karaban (Southborough, Mass.) scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the win, narrowly missing his first career double-double. Also in double-figures for the Huskies were Tristen Newton (El Paso, Texas) who has 14 points, five rebounds and five assists while Solomon Ball (Leesburg, Va.) set a new career-high with 13 points.

For the Tar Heels, R.J. Davis led all players with 26 points and Harrison Ingram added 20. As a team The Huskies shot 51.5 percent from the floor and dished out a season-high 25 assists.

How it Happened

UConn built a 23-16 lead after an even start, but a 7-0 run for the Tar Heels leveled the score around the U-8 timeout of the first half. The Huskies answered with the next five points and then took its largest lead of the half late in the frame at 42-32 by way of a Spencer 3-pointer and back-to-back buckets from Hassan Diarra (Queens, N.Y.). North Carolina got a triple at the first half horn to cut the halftime lead to 44-39.

Early in the second half, the Huskies rattled off an 8-0 run that included 3-pointers from Karaban and Ball to stretch the lead to double-digits for the first time at 52-41. Once again the Tar Heels delivered a counter-punch, using a 7-0 run to cut the UConn lead to 63-58 and force a timeout with 12:03 to play in regulation.

With the Tar Heels within six, UConn got back-to-back 3-pointers from Karaban and Ball to push the lead back to 75-63 with 6:36 to go. Another 6-0 spurt for Connecticut stretched the lead to 81-66 and forced a UNC timeout with 4:20 to play. The Huskies would not allow the Tar Heels to get closer than nine the rest of the way in the 11-point win.

Inside The Numbers

  • UConn was 34-of-66 (51.5 percent) from the floor and held UNC to a 28-of-64 (44.4 percent) effort
  • The Huskies were +10 on the glass, led by Karaban's nine rebounds and seven from Spencer
  • UConn dished out a season-high 25 assists and turned the ball over only eight times
  • The Huskies connected on 10 3-pointers, their fourth game this season with double-figure 3-pointers

News and Notes

  • UConn improved to 1-4 all-time in the Jimmy V Classic and 2-5 all-time against UNC
  • After facing No. 5 Kansas in its last outing UConn has faced consecutive top-10 foes for the first time since the 2010 Maui Invitational. It is also the first time since the 2005 Maui Invitational that UConn has been involved in back-to-back top-10 contests
  • The win over No. 9 North Carolina was UConn's highest ranked win in a regular season non-conference game since defeating No. 8 Kentucky on Nov. 24, 2010
  • Spencer's 20-point effort was his second as a Husky
  • Ball's double-figure scoring effort was the second of his career
  • UConn improves to 3-0 this season and 71-60 in program history at Madison Square Garden – Dan Hurley is now 9-6 as UConn head coach at MSG

Up Next

The Huskies return home to take on Arkansas Pine Bluff on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 12 p.m.