UConn dominates UMass Lowell by 63 as Reed leads Huskies in his season debut

Tarris Reed, Jr. led UConn with 20 points and 12 rebounds in season debut, one of seven in double figures as Huskies pummeled UMass Lowell. (Photo by UConn Men’s Basketball)

By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)

HARTFORD, Conn. — Dan Hurley used words such as “excruciating” and “painful” after UConn struggled to bury New Haven on Monday until the very end of the game. You could tell, even in a 24-point win, he was unsatisfied with the performance.

What words did he use on Friday night when the Huskies took down UMass Lowell in Hartford?

“An appropriate level of playing mad.”

“Playing mad” just scratches the surface of what transpired at PeoplesBank Arena. Leading by as many as 50 points in the first half, fourth-ranked UConn defeated UMass Lowell, 110-47, to move to 2-0 on the young season.

“I felt we showed an appropriate amount of anger, a bit of a redemption Friday in relation to our first official game performance,” Hurley said.

The biggest story coming into the night was the season debut of Tarris Reed, Jr. down low. The preseason all-Big East first team selection had been battling a hamstring injury for nearly a month that kept him out of Monday’s opener, but he made his presence known in game two for the Huskies, finishing with a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds in just 17 minutes.

“It’s been a wild month-long stretch, my first multiple-week stretch missing time in my career in college basketball,” Reed said as he led seven UConn players with double-figure point totals. “I want to thank my Lord and savior, and my coaching staff for guiding me back.”

“You can see the impact on the defense, the impact on the offense,” Hurley said. “He was on a minutes restriction, but that is going to get bumped up next game by 5-8 minutes because he felt great.”

Outside of Reed, six other Huskies finished in double figures: Silas Demary, Jr. with 16, Solo Ball and Malachi Smith with 14 each, Alex Karaban with 13, Eric Reibe with 11 and Jaylin Stewart with 10.

“The strength of this team is depth,” Hurley said. “We had seven in doubles and Jayden Ross had eight (points), so it was almost eight in doubles, and that's without Braylon (Mullins) and (Jacob) Furphy.”

The start of this game was one for the record books. The Huskies started the game on an 11-0 run and after the Riverhawks split a pair of free throws twice with a couple of UConn threes sandwiched in between, the Huskies responded with a 20-0 run to make it 37-2. The lead ballooned to 50, at 64-14, before a three just before the halftime buzzer made it a 47-point game at the break, UConn’s largest halftime advantage in program history.

“You end up saying (in the huddle), ‘don’t be the guy to give up the first field goal,’” Hurley said. “You don’t want to be that guy.”

“Coach was talking about getting back to vintage UConn,” Demary said. “Get back to going on those big runs.”

In such a dominant win, it's easy to overlook some notable individual performances. Demary had seven assists to go with his season high in points, and had multiple coast-to-coast confident drives to the rim. Stewart had a career-high six assists, including some flashy dimes around the basket. Smith was the pest on defense he was brought in to be, with a game-best three steals.

“If we have numbers, I’m just gonna push it,” Demary said. “If I see more of our guys than theirs, I’m gonna run and either dump it off to T-Reed or kick it out to AK or Solo for three.”

There was a scary moment in the first half where Karaban flushed a transition dunk and landed awkwardly on his side. The rowdy PeoplesBank Arena crowd went silent after the hard fall, but after Hurley and the trainer ran over to him, he got up and ran over to the bench with a smile.

“I ran over and asked him, ‘where are you right now, Hartford or Maui?’” Hurley said. “So that shows you where my head was at.”

As the game progressed, it turned into a dunk contest for the Huskies. Ross had some highlight jams and alley-oops, but none were as impressive as Ball’s fastbreak reverse dunk that erupted the crowd and pushed the lead to 65 for the first time. 

The lead reached its peak at 106-40 before settling at the 63-point victory it ended at. For a stretch, it looked like the Huskies would challenge their program record for margin of victory. On January 23, 1996, UConn beat Central Connecticut, 116-46, a 70-point beatdown.

Up next for the Huskies is the final game of this mini-MTE, when they host Columbia on Monday in Storrs. It may be another lower opponent, but Hurley certainly doesn’t feel that way after seeing what the Lions did to New Haven on Friday in comparison to how UConn handled the Chargers.

“Columbia is our Super Bowl on Monday night,” Hurley said. “We have to raise our intensity and play like a pack of wolves.”