UConn basketball made light work of the Georgetown Hoyas as they won 89-64.
UConn basketball’s first half was reminiscent of their previous game against Xavier where it seemed like they could do whatever they wanted on both ends of the floor. Unlike some of their more recent dominant victories, there wasn’t one marquee run that gave the Huskies their big lead. Instead it was them maximizing every offensive possession and getting the best shot attempts possible. The second half wasn’t much different and the Huskies offense continued to flow as they finished with 26 assists on 33 field goals made in their wire-to-wire victory.
12-STRAIGHT 🔥 pic.twitter.com/OGVXczsPLu
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) February 10, 2024
Georgetown’s sole bright spot in this contest was Dontrez Styles as he finished with 23 points. There’s no saying how bad this game would’ve looked early on without Styles as he scored 17 of Georgetown’s 28 first half points. Both Jayden Epps (4 points) and Supreme Cook (12 points) never found their stride as UConn made things very tough on Hoyas.
Alex Karaban led the way for UConn with 25 points and 4 rebounds. Other notable performances for the Huskies include Stephon Castle scoring 17 points, Tristen Newton having 9 assists and 6 rebounds, and Cam Spencer having 7 assists to go along with his 10 points and 6 rebounds.
Takeaway #1: UConn Looks Ready to Compete for Hardware
UConn basketball continues to dominate with another Big East win that puts their lead atop the conference at 2.5 games (pending Marquette’s matchup against St. John’s on Saturday evening). Obviously UConn won the national championship last year, but it has been a little while since they’ve seen this much success in conference play. The last time the Huskies won a regular season conference title was in 2006 and the last time they won a conference tournament was in 2016 during their time in the American Athletic Conference.
UConn’s only conference loss this season is to Seton Hall in their Big East opener. Since then the Huskies have been rolling on a 12-game win streak which has seen them as the top ranked team in the country for 4 consecutive weeks. Whether it’s a Big East regular season title, Big East Tournament title, or another national championship, Dan Hurley has this team ready to bring some form of hardware back to Storrs this March.
Takeaway #2: Georgetown Needs More Time
Georgetown had their hands full with UConn basketball today in a matchup that was very one-sided. The Hoyas had some solid moments in this game which mainly came from Dontrez Styles, but overall they struggled to string together multiple positive possessions in a row. Ed Cooley won’t have many nice things to say about this game as he’ll look to quickly forget it and move on.
No one thought this would be a quick turnaround when Ed Cooley accepted the job last off-season as he took over a program which had just 2 conference wins in the last two seasons. Players like Jayden Epps have given Georgetown glimpses of what could be coming their way, but those fans may need to wait another season or two before the Hoyas are ready to start competing in the Big East.
Takeaway #3: Saturday was the Alex Karaban Show
One of the impressive aspects of this UConn Basketball team is how they have five different players averaging over 10 points per game who could all score 20+ points on any given day. Saturday was Alex Karaban’s day as he finished with 25 points on 10-14 shooting. Karaban shouldered the offensive load at times as he was effective both in the paint and from beyond the arc. He is one of the hardest workers for the Huskies and this game was a display of that as he looked so calm and composed on the offensive side of the ball. Alex Karaban missed the first game of his career last weekend due to an ankle injury, but it’s safe to say he’s back to normal now.
Have a day, AK! 👏 pic.twitter.com/hHmWwLoklU
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) February 10, 2024
Next for UConn: at DePaul (Wed., Feb. 14 – 9 p.m.)
Next for Georgetown: at Creighton (Tues., Feb. 13 – 8:30 p.m.)