UConn basketball held on to win 74-65 at home against the Providence Friars.
Gampel Pavilion brought some serious energy Wednesday night as the UConn Huskies took on the Providence Friars in the late game. Both teams entered the contest coming off some fairly emotional weekend wins with UConn beating Xavier by 43 points and Providence coming out triumphant as their former coach returned to the “AMP” for the first time.
To say that this was a hard-fought victory for UConn would be an understatement. Despite being 13.5-point underdogs, the Providence Friars played like they were equals with the Huskies if not the favorites as they held the lead for most of the first half and kept the game within two possessions for a majority of the second half too. The Friars opened the game with a clear focus on getting the ball into the paint and it paid off as both Donovan Clingan and Samson Johnson got into early foul trouble which forced UConn coach Dan Hurley to tinker with his rotations. Combine that with Alex Karaban missing time in the first half with an ankle injury and it seemed like a miracle that UConn basketball had the lead at halftime.
The second half wasn’t much different as both teams were plagued with foul trouble. Ultimately, the UConn Huskies pulled away in the closing stretch to stay undefeated at home this season. It’s difficult to not talk about the referees from Wednesday as they called 48 fouls, including four technical fouls, in the contest which resulted in four different players fouling out and three others finishing with four fouls. Neither team shot particularly well from the field or the free throw line, but to be fair there weren’t many stretches of the game where either side could get into rhythm with whistles constantly stopping play. Both teams were able to maintain their focus and toughness in what went down as just another wild night in the Big East.
Takeaway #1: Welcome to the Big East, Stephon Castle
Despite missing time this season due to a knee injury, Stephon Castle has played a large role in his team’s success that UConn basketball fans have definitely taken note of, but tonight may have been the first time that the rest of the conference got to see what this freshman is capable of. Defensively, Castle was tasked with guarding the second leading scorer in the conference, Devin Carter, and held him to just 4 points in the first half.
A career-night for Steph 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GKHLY07blE
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) February 1, 2024
On the other end of the floor, Castle scored 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting and grabbed 5 rebounds. Castle also shot 2-for-4 from 3-point range while the rest of the Huskies shot a combined 2-for-19 just days after tying a program record with 17 made threes against Xavier. UConn fans have praised Stephon Castle for his defense and hustle for weeks now, but tonight was the first time that the team truly relied on Castle for offensive production and he stepped up in a big way.
Takeaway #2: Avoid Providence on Mar. 14
There’s plenty of regular season left in the Big East, but as it currently stands the Friars would be underdogs in their first-round matchup as the 5th seed in the Big East Tournament. Wednesday night showed that no one wants to see their team matched up with Providence in their opening game at Madison Square Garden. Head coach Kim English has a tough job ahead of him as he continues to figure out ways to push forward without star Bryce Hopkins who is out for the remainder of the season with an injury.
Devin Carter has stepped up big in recent games and looks to be on track to get his name mentioned in the Big East POY conversation, but Wednesday night was a combined effort with 5th-year transfer Josh Oduro to keep the game close in Storrs. Oduro finished with 20 points and 9 rebounds in just 23 minutes of game time as he fell victim to foul trouble. Oduro was impressive with his jump shooting and his confidence when he had the ball in his hand.
Takeaway #3: UConn is Holding on Tight to #1
After becoming the top-ranked team in the country a few weeks ago, Hurley said that they were going to fight just as hard to keep it as they did to get there. Since then the UConn Huskies have done whatever it takes to win and proven that they are the best team in the country right now.
From blowout wins over Creighton and Xavier to a slugfest on the road with Villanova to now winning an ugly battle against Providence, the Huskies continue to find new ways to win games as they rely on different players to come up big for them every night. UConn is a deep team with many skill sets and has just as good of a chance as any other team in the country to raise a new banner this March.
Next game for UConn: at St. John’s (Sat., Feb. 3 – Noon)
Next game for Providence: at Villanova (Sun., Feb. 4 – 6 p.m.)