UConn Comes Up Big at ECU

Christian Vital (1) scored a season-best 27 points to lead the Huskies
over ECU on Saturday, improving their postseason chances.
(Photo by Stephen Slade)

GREENVILLE, N.C.—Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina for the UConn Huskies on Saturday as Christian Vital had a season-high 27 points to lead all scorers as UConn cruised past East Carolina 84-63 before 5,003 fans at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. James Bouknight chipped in with a double-double (19 points, 10 boards), while Isaiah Whaley had 16 points and seven rebounds and  Brendan Adams added 11 points off the bench for the Huskies, who improved their National Invitation Tournament  (N.I.T.) position by upping their record to 17-12 overall and 8-8 American Athletic Conference play. In order to realistically be considered for the N.I.T., a team needs to be above .500 overall, and at least at .500 within its conference.

Tristen Newton scored a season-high 25 points for the Pirates while Charles Coleman added 12 points.

The Huskies led wire-to-wire, scoring the game's first five points and built a 42-30 lead at intermission, closing out the first half with a 12-4 run. The 42 first-half points represented the Huskies season-best.

ECU (11-19, 5-12) trailed by 10 with 8:30 remaining in the first half. But the Pirates sliced six points off the Huskies' advantage and were down only four, 30-26, with just under five remaining in the first half. UConn the scored 10 unanswered points, bookended by 3s from Vital and Bouknight, for 14-point lead before securing a 12-point cushion at intermission.

Although UConn maintained a double-digit lead the majority of the second half, ECU made a run midway through the stanza, going on a 16-8 run to pull within six, 62-56, with 9:50 to play. However, the Huskies were not phased and pushed their lead out to 17 points with 4:16 remaining, outscoring the Pirates 14-3 over a five-minute stretch.

"I'm disappointed in a number of things," ECU Head Coach Joe Dooley said. "It was probably the first time in a while we've given in a little bit. We had a number of things go wrong today and we couldn't offset it. We didn't play like ourselves today. A lot of that is attributed to UConn. They made a lot timely shots and obviously Vital was terrific.

Freshman Tristen Newton scored a season-high 25 points for the Pirates while fellow freshman Charles Coleman reached double figures for the first time this season with 12 points.

Both teams shot 43 percent from the field, but UConn made 10 3s compared to two by the Pirates. The Huskies were also plus-12 on the backboards and scored 19 second chance points off 16 offensive rebounds.

Sophomore Jayden Gardner failed to score double figures for the first time this season as the UConn defense limited him to just nine points. ECU junior guard JJ Miles was ejected from the game after his was assessed a technical foul after slapping the ball out of the hands of UConn guard Alterique Gilbert.

The Huskies were dominant of the boards, out-rebounding the Pirates by a 39-27 margin, including 16-11 off the offensive glass. Those led to 19 second-chance points for the Huskies.

The Huskies now return home on Thursday with a game vs. Houston (22-7 overall, 12-4 AAC) at Gampel Pavilion on Thursday. Tip-off is at 7 p.m., and the game will be televised on the CBS Sports Network. The Huskies will close out the regular season on Sunday when they travel to New Orleans to take on Tulane (12-17, 4-13) at Devlin Fieldhouse. That game tips-off at 4 p.m. and will be televised on ESPNU.

—Staff Reports

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