Jordan Hawkins made a career-high six 3-pointers and finished with 22 points to lead No. 5 UConn to a 114-61 win over Long Island on Saturday in Storrs, Conn.
Five players finished in double figures for the Huskies (11-0), who are the nation’s only unbeaten team that has won every game by double digits.
Freshmen Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban scored 21 and 19 points, respectively. Clingan, who played just 15 minutes, also pulled down 11 rebounds.
Adama Sanogo (16) and Nahiem Alleyne (11) also chipped in for UConn, which shot 62.5 percent from the field and made 14 shots from 3-point range.
Clingan made six of UConn’s last seven field goals in a first half that featured two separate 13-0 runs.
Jacob Johnson scored 19 points, RJ Greene added 17 and Quion Burns had 11 and seven rebounds for LIU (1-8).
Saturday’s victory capped UConn’s first perfect non-conference schedule since the 2010-11 national championship season.
Andre Jackson’s dunk off a Tristen Newton lob pass and Karaban’s 3-pointer opened a 5-0 lead. Cheikh Ndiaye scored three points during LIU’s game-tying five-point run, but the Huskies never looked back after responding with seven straight points — including a 3-pointer by Hawkins.
Jackson’s behind-the-back move for a dunk and 3-pointers by three different Huskies highlighted UConn’s first 13-0 burst of the opening half.
Including the original stretch, UConn’s run was 20-2 over a span of 5:30.
The second 13-point run started with UConn already leading 35-16. Karaban scored five of the first seven points before Sanogo turned a steal into an easy basket for himself.
Clingan stood out late to set a new personal benchmark in the opening period, scoring two of three straight baskets on second-chance opportunities down low. The halftime score was 62-27.
LIU had a better second half, matching UConn’s early field goals and shooting 48 percent over the full 20 minutes.
The Huskies had three other runs before Alleyne’s triple capped a 7-0 spurt, bringing the team above the century mark in regulation for the first time since Nov. 25, 2020.
–Field Level Media