Huskies Coast in Win; Castle Out Injured

The Story: Cam Spencer broke out of his shooting slump in a big way last night as he scored 25 points in the No. 5-ranked men’s basketball team’s lethargic 87-53 win over Mississippi Valley State at the XL Center.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Spencer, the sharpshooting transfer from Rutgers, shot 9-for-14 against the Delta Devils (3-0), including 7-for-11 from 3-point range. He made five 3-pointers in the first half, equaling his total from the Huskies’ first two games combined, and also had four assists.

• Spencer never scored 25 points in a game last season at Rutgers, and you have to go back to his final game at Loyola (Maryland) — a loss at Boston University in the Patriot League championship game in 2022 — to find the last time he surpassed that total. And regardless of where he played, he never made seven 3-pointers in a game.

• He was one of five players who reached double figures in scoring for the Huskies. Donovan Clingan had 17 points and five rebounds, Alex Karaban had 14 points, and Tristen Newton and Solomon Ball each had 10 points, with Newton contributing eight rebounds and seven assists.

CASTLE INJURED: Ball was in the lineup in place of Stephon Castle, who didn’t play because of a knee injury. Castle, who will undergo additional evaluation this morning, tweaked the knee during the win over Stonehill. He warmed up prior to the game with a wrap on his right knee.

• Dan Hurley expressed concern after the game that Castle could miss some time. “I don’t think that we’re nervous about this being a long-term thing,” he said. “We think it’s pretty minor. If he’s going to miss time, it won’t be much, but it’s kind of just evolved within the last 24 hours, 36 hours.”

WHAT WE LIKED: Well, it’s hard to say. The Huskies (3-0) didn’t come roaring out of the gates like you’d expect the defending national champions to do against one of the worst teams in Division I. They only led 44-27 at halftime.

• We did like seeing Ball step up in his first career start and not miss a beat. The highly regarded freshman sometimes gets lost amid the hype over Castle, a likely lottery pick come June, but he’s a capable playmaker and facilitator in his own right. He hustled, and emphatically dunked, and didn’t look out of place in his 28 minutes.

• Uh, that’s it. We have nothing else to put here. They didn’t lose, so that’s what else we liked.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE: Take it from the man himself: “I’m pissed, because that’s not championship-caliber basketball,” Hurley said.

• Hurley was especially upset with the Huskies’ returners, especially because Karaban and Newton were in foul trouble almost from the start of the game. Their absence meant the score was closer than necessary, which then meant that Hurley said he didn’t feel comfortable putting Samson Johnson, Jayden Ross and Jaylin Stewart on the court until the closing minutes. (One could argue they could have seen time with UConn up 25 with 10 minutes remaining, but we digress.)

• In addition to Castle’s injury situation, Clingan was grimacing with five minutes left after blocking a shot. Clingan, who is coming back from a right foot injury, only played 23 minutes, including 11 in the first half.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: UConn shot 54.7 percent, including 11-for-28 (39.3 percent) from 3-point range, and held a 41-30 edge in rebounding.

• Mississippi Valley State shot 32.2 percent, including 28.6 percent in the second half, and made just one of its nine 3-point attempts. It somehow went a woeful 12-for-23 on layups and was led by Rayquan Brown, who scored 18 points on 9-of-24 shooting.

WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “I let the team know, particularly the older guys —- we’ve got three returners from the national championship game here, the big three in Tristen, Donovan and Alex, and I think they want to be the big three and at different points last year maybe should have thought it should have been a big four. But they have to play well from the start to make it easy for [the freshmen] to play well. If they’re [not] … it makes it really hard for the younger players to settle in and play well.”

UP NEXT: UConn takes a bit of a step up in competition on Sunday when it heads to its home away from home, Madison Square Garden, to face Indiana in the first round of the four-team Empire Classic (1 p.m., ESPN). Depending on the result, it will face Louisville or No. 19 Texas a day later.

— Zac Boyer

Morning Reads

• Jim Mora isn’t screwing around. The football coach said yesterday he’s “gonna attack the [transfer] portal” to add quality playmakers who can help turn the Huskies around immediately after a dismal 1-9 season.

Top photo: Dan Hurley yells during the Huskies’ win over Northern Arizona. (Ian Bethune for The UConn Daily)