Huskies hope to keep progressing

STORRS — They’ve won a game without Jalen Adams. They’ve won a game almost singlehandedly because of Jalen Adams.

In UConn’s season-opening games against Colgate and Stony Brook, the Huskies have struggled at times against lesser opponents. Both times they’ve emerged victorious.

“It showed that we could come together, when things weren’t going our way,” said junior wing Terry Larrier. “We stuck together and pulled out the victory, so it’s a real good experience for us.”

It wasn’t always pretty, but 2-0 certainly trumps last year’s 0-2.

“You don’t want it to happen. I’d rather beat a team by 50,” said coach Kevin Ollie. “But, since we’ve been in that predicament, it’s good that we came out on top.”

The Huskies hope to continue to build off those experiences and keep up some momentum today, when they host Boston University at the XL Center in Hartford (6 p.m., SNY). The Terriers have dropped their first two games of the season, but have several players back from a team

that gave UConn all it could handle in a 65-59 loss to the Huskies last November at Gampel Pavilion.

“They gave us a good game last year, they’re gonna do the same thing,” Ollie promised. “They’re four-out, one-in. (Javante) McCoy is a very steady point guard. We’re gonna try to run it, put some pressure on him and try to deny him the ball back.”

This could be considered one of those “trap” games, coming two days before UConn leaves for the PK80 Invitational tournament out in Portland, Oregon, where opponents like Oregon, Michigan State and North Carolina could await.

“It’s important to get the win,” said Larrier, “and keep improving on things that we work on in practice.”

Ollie wants his team to get off to better starts in games and not fall behind early, as it did against both Colgate and Stony Brook. The Huskies trailed the latter by six at halftime, and by as many as nine points with just 51⁄2 minutes left.

It could have been 11 points, if not for what Ollie labeled the “biggest play of the game,” when Jalen Adams chased down a loose ball, brought it into the lane and kicked it out to freshman Tyler Polley, who knocked down a 3-pointer.

Adams followed with six straight points to put the Huskies up for good, as UConn closed out the game with a 19-2 run.

“If he didn’t chase that loose ball and (said), ‘Oh, we’re down nine,’ ... They go up by 11, I don’t think we win that game,” said Ollie. “That’s an EGB (energygenerating behavior). That was the biggest play of the game.”

As much as Ollie appreciated Adams’s hustle play, he’d like to avoid those situations altogether by getting off to better starts and playing more uptempo. That would help keep UConn from falling behind by nine points with 51⁄2 minutes to go.

“We don’t want to be in that position,” said Ollie, “but when we find ourselves in that position, we’re gonna dig ourselves out. I don’t want to continue to play like

that. Once the competition goes up - BU is another competition, we go out to Portland it’s not gonna be 50-point games. We’re gonna be in situations where we have to make plays.”