The America East teams are probably glad that they don’t play in the Big East on a nightly basis because I’m pretty sure they’re all sick of seeing Kemba Walker light them up.
Walker got one milestone out of the way early and then went on to another as his triple-double helped the No. 7/9 UConn Huskies to an easy 94-61 win over the UMBC Retrievers in front of 10,591 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT on Friday night.
With the win, UConn improves to 7-0 on the season. The Retrievers fall to 0-7.
Walker hit 1,000 career points right at the beginning of the game with two free throws. By the end of the game, he had his first career triple-double with 24 points, a career-high 13 rebounds and 10 assists. It was just the eighth triple-double in UConn men’s basketball history.
Besides Walker, there were five other Huskies that recorded double-figures for the game.
Jeremy Lamb had 12 points and six rebounds while Roscoe Smith, Alex Oriakhi and Niels Giffey all had 11 points. Oriakhi added four blocks while Lamb and Smith each had two. Jamal Coombs-McDaniel rounded out the Huskies in double-digits with 10 points.
Travis King paced the Retrievers with 14 points while Chris De La Rosa had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists. Adrian Satchell and Jamar Wertz led UMBC with six rebounds with Satchell chipping in with eight points.
The Huskies got out of the gates quickly pulling out to an 11-2 lead. Then UMBC went to a zone and on a 9-3 run to cut the Huskies lead to three at 14-11. UConn got the lead back up to eight at 21-13 before UMBC cut it back to three again with a 5-0 run. Once again, the Huskies responded and pushed the lead to nine at 27-18.
The lead would get as high as 13 points before UMBC went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to seven but the Huskies went on a 7-2 run at the end of the half to take a 44-32 lead at the half.
UConn used a 10-3 run to start the second half to seize control of the game at 57-35 and they never looked back from there. The closest the Retrievers would get was 20 points with UConn’s lead swelling to as much as 35.
The Huskies for a period of time in the first half were once again getting outworked by another team. But a few choice words from head coach Jim Calhoun seemed to change that.
The one thing I liked about the game was Walker’s numbers on the night. Sure he led the team in scoring but he was battling for rebounds and did a great job of distributing the ball to his open teammates. Walker can expect double-teams so the other four on the floor will need to step up and they did that on Friday night.
The Huskies will play one last game on Wednesday night before breaking for final exams. They’ll host the Farleigh Dickinson Knights at 7:30 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion.
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Notes and musings:
UMBC Retrievers @ UConn Huskies 12.3.10 box score
Here are some quotes from UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Niels Giffey and UMBC head coach Randy Monroe.
The starters for the Huskies were Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Roscoe Smith, Tyler Olander and Alex Oriakhi.
Walker’s triple-double was the eighth in UConn men’s basketball history. The last to do it was Hasheem Thabeet against Providence on January 31, 2009.
Walker became just the 2nd UConn player to score 20 points in a triple-double all-time, joining Donyell Marshall, who did it for UConn in the 1993-94 season against another America East Conference team, Hartford.
Walker is 45th UConn player to reach 1,000 career points. It took him 77 games to get there.
UConn is 4-0 against America East teams this season (Stony Brook, Vermont, New Hampshire, UMBC).
UConn had never faced UMBC before Friday night’s game.
UConn is 205-23 under Jim Calhoun in non-conference games before January.
The win for Calhoun was his 830th which is good for a tie for 6th place with former Mount St Mary’s coach Jim Phelan.
UConn shot 55.9% (33-of-59) from the floor while UMBC shot 32.4% (23-of-71).
The Huskies had 26 assists on their 33 made baskets.
UConn was 12-of-23 (52.2%) from three-point land while UMBC was 7-of-20 (35%).
The Huskies were 16-of-22 (72.4%) from the charity stripe.
UConn won the battle of the boards 44-32, 21-5 on the fast break and 32-26 in the paint.
The Huskies had 20 points off of 13 UMBC turnovers. The Retrievers had 18 points off of 13 UConn turnovers.
Photo credits: AP Photo, Hartford Courant (11)
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