HARTFORD – Behind Donovan Clingan’s first double-double of the year, the UConn men’s basketball team extended its winning streak to 11 games with a 71-62 victory over Butler at the XL Center Tuesday night.
Clingan finished with 18 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, plus three blocks, on an efficient 8 of 12 from the field. Cam Spencer, the only Husky to make a 3-pointer through the game’s first 36 minutes, tallied a team-high 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting from the field and 4 of 8 from beyond the arc.
UConn is now 13-0 at home with just three such games remaining.
Alex Karaban, who returned to the Huskies’ starting lineup after sitting out at St. John’s with an ankle sprain, landed the dagger from beyond the arc in the final two minutes and finished with seven points and three rebounds on 3 of 7 shooting.
UConn, with only two players scoring in double-digits, shot a collective 6 of 17 from 3-point range and 27 of 57 from the field.
Clingan got the Huskies going with a pair of layups out of the post and had two clean assists to Karaban and Spencer cutting to the basket early on. There was a three-minute offensive lull for both teams before Hassan Diarra scored his first points with a layup and made an errant pass to Spencer, who got to the ball and hoisted his first 3-pointer of the night to put UConn ahead, 17-10.
Tristen Newton, UConn’s leader in points, rebounds and assists, went down hard around the six-minute mark and was slow to get up. The All-America candidate appeared to be alright when he returned to the game after a five-minute stint on the bench, during which Clingan, Spencer and Diarra went on an 11-2 scoring run to build a 12-point lead.
To cap off the run, after Spencer landed his second 3-pointer of the half, Karaban made a steal and saved the ball from going out of bounds in the corner with a pass behind his head to Diarra. Diarra raced the floor and dumped it off to Clingan for a layup that triggered the XL Center’s flashing lights as the crowd erupted.
Diarra finished with nine points, two rebounds, three assists and a block in 19 minutes off the bench.
Butler’s DJ Davis made a 3-pointer from the corner as the halftime buzzer sounded, cutting UConn’s lead to 35-27 at the break.
Davis continued a personal 11-0 scoring run into the second half with a layup and his third 3-pointer of the game, which cut UConn’s lead to just 35-32 less than two minutes into the final 20. Davis finished with a game-high 21 points on 6 of 12 shooting.
UConn only had four different players in the scoring column until Newton stole a pass from Pierre Brooks and finished with a layup in transition for his first points of the game at the 14-minute mark. Samson Johnson flew to the party two minutes later, launching himself to catch and dunk a lob from Spencer. Stephon Castle scored his first points with a three-point play under the basket and a tip-in on the next possession, pushing UConn’s lead back out to 10 around the nine-minute mark.
The Bulldogs cut their deficit to five on separate occasions down the stretch but the Huskies always had an answer.
Up five with two minutes to go, Clingan converted a layup through a foul and Karaban made his first 3-pointer of the night to put the Huskies up 11.
UConn has a two-game road trip to Georgetown (Noon, Saturday) and DePaul (9 p.m. Wednesday) before returning to the XL Center for its first matchup against reigning league champion Marquette on Feb. 17.
