Doubling down on 92 points, the UConn Huskies are keeping up the heat this season. They defeated the New Hampshire Wildcats in a 92-53 blowout win today. The only returning starter for the 2x defending national champions, Alex Karaban led the Huskies with 17 points, five rebounds, four assists, and four blocked shots, while Liam McNeeley grabbed 11 boards to give UConn that winning push. However, their start to the game left a lot to be desired. Or at least that’s what head coach Dan Hurley believes.

In the post-game presser, he talked about the same and said, “The standards are high here. I said to those guys in the locker room, ‘You won by 39 points but the reality of the situation is that the game was below brand for us, for a considerable amount of time.'”

“I think there was just the level of basketball that everyone that has watched UConn play for 25 game minutes, I think there was like, I don’t say a surprise for in with the crowd or a surprise just in terms of us not playing as well as people are used to watching us play,” he added.

Well, case in point: The Huskies were evidently not in their usual form in the first half of the game, as they struggled to make shots in the first half—13 of their first 18 shots in the second half.

As for Hurley, he elaborated on Tarris Reed Jr’s performance and said, “I think human nature started to creep in with him today. He did not stick to the identity he established.” Reed had 11 points and 8 rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench. But the head coach clearly wasn’t pleased with his effort.

“So he had a really good opening night and then a lot of people told Terris, ‘Hey, great job.’ He got a lot of text messages. I’m sure he got some dopamine on social media and then he resorted back to some things that, some looseness, on the post feed, he doesn’t meet the pass and they steal it, and you know did not grab high point rebounds with two hands. He’s got to continue to change. But Terris was fine tonight,” Hurley bluntly stated. But how is he not satisfied despite the margin of victory?

How did UConn overcome the initial slug?

When the game took off, the Huskies just weren’t balling as they should. Setting out early, Liam McNeeley missed a three-point jumper, followed by Aidan Mahaney getting the same outcome. As a result, the Wildcats took a 4-point lead after Trey Woodyard made 2 jump shots.

The tug was on, with the Huskies trailing by 2-3 points until Solo Ball made a layup and gave UConn its first lead of the game at 10:09. The lead was then elevated by Karaban’s three-point shot and finally, the Huskies caught on with the momentum.

By the end of the first half, Karaban scored the 4-of-6 points and took a 35-24 lead over the Wildcats. Similarly, in the second half, Karaban swiftly posted two 3-point shots to give UConn some distance from the Wildcats.

Solo Ball scored 14 points and 4 rebounds, while Jayden Ross added 14 points coming off the bench. Aidan Mahaney and Samson Johnson scored in single digits while they provided their teammates with some key assists. Moving on, the Huskies will play against Fairfield University on Tuesday, followed by their matchup with LeMoyne.