Huskies Cruise to Exhibition Victory Over St. Michael’s

By Bob Phillips

Alterique Gibert flies for two of his game-high 21 points to lead the
Huskies to a 39-point exhibition victory over St. Michael's.

HARTFORD—The University of Connecticut men’s basketball team put on a clinic and opened the 2019-20 season by overwhelming St. Michael’s College of Colchester, VT, 103-64, in an exhibition contest played before 7,370 fans at the XL Center on Wednesday night. Five Huskies scored in double figures, led by redshirt junior Alterique Gilbert who poured in 21 points while also adding five rebounds and three assists. Senior Christian Vital tallied 15 points, eight rebounds, six assists and six steals, junior Isaiah Whaley added 14 points, six rebounds and five blocks, and sophomore Brendan Adams contributed 14 points, four assists and four steals. Junior Tyler Polley rounded out the quintet with 13 points, five steals and two assists.

Walker Storey led St. Michael’s with 15 points, while Kasai Brown (13), Jordan Guzman (12) and Jason Heter (11) also scored in double digits for the Purple Knights. Middletown native Thomas Jackson III, who missed all last season with an injury, started and scored four points for St. Michael’s.

The game was close through the first 10 minutes, but a quick burst by the Huskies gave them their first double-digit lead of the ball game. Gilbert drove into the lane, finished through contact and then sunk the free throw to complete a traditional three-point play. The 6-0, 180 lb. redshirt junior from Atlanta followed that up by knocking down a triple on UConn's next possession, giving the Huskies a 23-13 lead and forcing the Purple Knights to call a timeout.

Christian Vital slams down two.

St. Michael’s showed some spark and gained some after cutting the Huskies’ to just eight, 36-28, with less than a minute left until intermission. But the Huskies answered back when Sidney Wilson put back an offensive rebound just before the buzzer to give UConn a 12-point lead, 40-28, at the break.

After hearing it a bit from head coach Dan Hurley during intermission, the Huskies came out of the locker room en fuego and opened the second half on an 18-0 run and took a 58-28 lead. Game, set, match. Say goodnight, Gracie.

For the Huskies, it was a case of offense fueled by aggressive defense—a formula UConn hopes to ride through their last season in the American Athletic Conference before coming home to The Big East for the 2020-21 campaign.

“Definitely, we want to force turnovers, get in the passing lanes,” Gilbert said. “We had a couple of mistakes defensively, which I’m sure we’ll look at, but overall we did great.”

“Thrilled to get out hopefully pretty healthy,” said Hurley. “These exhibition games are what they are—a chance to get some jitters out. Hopefully we got them out in the first half.”

And now it’s on to the regular season, which the Huskies will open on campus when they entertain the Sacred Heart (Fairfield) Pioneers on Fri., Nov. 8. Tip-off at Gampel Pavilion will be at 8 p.m., and the game will be televised live on SNY, streamed on ESPN3, and broadcast on the UConn IMG Radio Network. In addition, all Huskies games are available through the TuneIn app.

THE SKINNY

—Staff Reports

#uconn / #uconnmbb / #uconnhuskies / #huskies / #BleedBlue / #UConnNation