STORRS – Senior point guard Ryan Boatright woke up a sleepy UConn offense as the No. 17 Huskies, defending NCAA men’s basketball champions, rallied from a nine-point deficit to open their season with a 66-53 victory over Bryant University Friday night before a sellout crowd at Gampel Pavilion.
Boatright (24 points) sparked the comeback with a three-pointer with 14:50 left. On Bryant’s next possession Boatright, the defensive star of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, stole the ball from Hunter Ware and then exploded to the basket for a dunk that cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 42-41. Blocked shots by Amida Brimah and Boatright on the next Bryant possession got the crowd into the game at full force.
Freshman Daniel Hamilton then pulled off his own steal and slam dunk to tie the game at 43. A drive and basket by Boatright put UConn on top 45-43 and UConn never trailed again.
Boatright, taking the place of Final Four Most Outstanding Player Shabazz Napier at the point, had another steal and dunk. Then a reverse dunk by Brimah put the Huskies up 49-45.
Bryant, led by Dyami Starks, trailed 19-8 early but switched to a zone defense to confuse the Huskies. That allowed the Bulldogs to go on an 18-0 lead and take the lead 26-19. Bryant kept that up to halftime, when the Bulldogs lead 34-28. A three-pointer by Angus Riley gave Bryant its biggest lead at 37-28. Bryant outrebounded UConn 22-20 in the first half as the Huskies went 2-for-11 from three-point range.
Briman finished with 12 points and Sam Cassell, Jr. had 10 points after starting in place of Rodney Purvis, who served a one-game NCAA suspension.
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