HARTFORD – Cam Spencer waited patiently for his turn to fill up the basket in a UConn uniform.
The fifth-year guard did just that on Tuesday, leading the way with 25 points in an 87-53 win over Mississippi Valley State at the XL Center, UConn’s 20th straight win over a nonconference opponent – all by double-digits.
“I couldn’t throw it in the ocean the other night so to see a few go in tonight was great,” Spencer said.
Spencer’s 19 first-half points made up for a sloppy start for the Huskies, who were without freshman guard Stephon Castle due to a knee injury he suffered when he slipped on the court in the second half of the Stonehill game on Saturday. Head coach Dan Hurley said there will be an update on Castle’s status toward the end of the week, and knocked on a table when saying, “I don’t think we’re nervous about this being a long-term thing, we think it’s pretty minor. If he’s gonna miss time, it won’t be much.”
UConn allowed six offensive rebounds in the first nine minutes of the game as Alex Karaban and Tristen Newton were sent to the bench, each carrying a pair of early fouls. Newton’s first came as a double technical on him and Mississippi Valley State’s Danny Washington as words were exchanged following a held ball.
“Not particularly pleased with tonight’s performance, I thought the rebounding, just what went on on the backboard especially early and at different times in the second half was not something that we’ve seen for a couple of years here,” a frustrated Hurley said. “I thought we looked soft. We just had terrible discipline in terms of fouls, and just couldn’t guard the ball. Overall, that was just a frustrating night of basketball.”
All the while, Spencer kept firing.
The Rutgers transfer had five made 3-pointers and had eight of his 19 first half points during a 22-6 scoring run that put the Huskies up, 42-20, with less than three minutes left in the opening period. Spencer’s hot start continued in the second half as he finished with a career-high seven made 3-pointers on 11 attempts and made 9 of 14 from the field.
Spencer had been picking his spots to start the season – he drew praise from Hurley for his unselfishness to only take three shots in the season opener, but was disappointed by his 2 for 10 night from beyond the arc in Game Two against Stonehill.
“That’s something we see on a daily basis with Cam, the shooting, that’s something he’s been able to do his whole career so we knew that was going to change,” Hurley said. “But I’d say that he probably is embodying more of the things right now that more players should embody. I think he plays with a toughness, he plays with a little bit of a dog mentality and I didn’t think he had a lot of guys that were ready to go with him tonight. It’s scary what the halftime score would’ve been if not for that first half by him.”
Playing 23 minutes, his most this season, Donovan Clingan made 7 of 8 from the field and finished with 17 points, five rebounds and three blocks. Karaban, despite his foul trouble, had 14 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Mr. Triple-Double, Newton came close to his first of the season (and third as a Husky) with a relatively quiet 10 points, eight rebounds and seven helpers.
“I let the team know, particularly the older guys, we’ve got three returners from the national championship game – the ‘Big Three’ in Tristen and Donovan and Alex… – those three have to play better from the start and make it easier for Solo Ball to play well, make it easier for Jayden Ross to play well, make it easier for Jaylin Stewart to play well,” Hurley said. “If they’re committing two or three fouls in the first half, or if they’re shooting weak shots at the rim or if they’re turning the ball over four times, with all due respect, at this level of competition, it makes it really hard for the younger players to come in and play well.
“I think that our older guys made the game hard on the freshmen tonight.”
Ball made his first collegiate start in place of freshman classmate Castle and got involved early, diving on the floor for loose balls and even climbing the ladder for a one-handed poster dunk over 6-foot-8 Delta Devils’ forward Kameron Mayhan with just under 10 minutes to go in the first half. He finished with 10 points (3 of 12 from the field), three rebounds and an assist.
As a team, UConn shot 55% from the field and 39% from beyond the arc. The Huskies held Mississippi Valley State to 32% shooting from the field and just 11% on 3-pointers.
UConn (3-0) heads to Madison Square Garden for the Empire Classic this weekend, their first game of the two-day tournament against Indiana at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Commercials Cooperation Advertisements:
(1) IT Teacher IT Freelance
立刻註冊及報名電腦補習課程吧!
电子计算机 -教育 -IT 電腦班” ( IT電腦補習 ) 提供一個方便的电子计算机 教育平台, 為大家配對信息技术, 電腦 老師, IT freelance 和 programming expert. 讓大家方便地就能找到合適的電腦補習, 電腦班, 家教, 私人老師.
We are a education and information platform which you can find a IT private tutorial teacher or freelance.
Also we provide different information about information technology, Computer, programming, mobile, Android, apple, game, movie, anime, animation…
(2) ITSec
www.ITSeceu.uk
Secure Your Computers from Cyber Threats and mitigate risks with professional services to defend Hackers.
ITSec provide IT Security and Compliance Services, including IT Compliance Services, Risk Assessment, IT Audit, Security Assessment and Audit, ISO 27001 Consulting and Certification, GDPR Compliance Services, Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA), Penetration test, Ethical Hacking, Vulnerabilities scan, IT Consulting, Data Privacy Consulting, Data Protection Services, Information Security Consulting, Cyber Security Consulting, Network Security Audit, Security Awareness Training.
Contact us right away.
Email (Prefer using email to contact us):
SalesExecutive@ITSec.vip