HARTFORD- Point guard Alterique Gilbert scored 21 points to lead UConn over the University of New Hampshire 88-62 on Sunday.
Gilbert, who had scored a combined nine points over the previous two games, took over early in the second half with his own 9-0 run to make it 52-37 with 15:57 remaining.
The red-shirt junior shot 6-for-12 from the field, 3-for-5 on 3-pointers and 6 of 6 at the foul line. He finished three points shy of his career high (24), which came against Florida State last season.
Christian Vital added 15 points with a team-high seven rebounds for the Huskies (8-3), who never lost the double-digit lead in the final 15 minutes.
Freshmen James Bouknight (seven rebounds) and Akok Akok had 14 and 12 points, respectively. UConn was 11-for-24 on 3-pointers.
Nick Guadarrama led UNH (6-6) with 19 points and Jayden Martinez finished with 14.
UConn led 40-36 at the half behind 11 points from Vital and Gilbert’s eight. After shooting 1-for-6 to start from the 3-point line, the Huskies finished 6-for-14.
Guadarrama had nine first-half points for UNH, which was also 6-for-14 on 3s.
The Wildcats jumped out to an 18-9 lead with help from four 3-pointers and UConn coach Dan Hurley called a timeout with 12:29 remaining to settle his Huskies down.
It worked.
Freshman Jalen Gaffney’s 3-pointer ignited a 15-0 run that pushed the Huskies ahead 24-18 with 7:56 to play. UNH missed all seven field-goal attempts over a four-minute, 58-second scoreless stretch.
BIG PICTURE
New Hampshire: The Wildcats head into the break with a .500 record and having lost three of their last five games.
UConn: The Huskies took much better care of the ball than their previous two games (48 combined turnovers) and improved to 6-1 at home this season.
UP NEXT
UConn returns to action on Dec. 29 when it hosts New Jersey Institute of Technology in its second-to-last non-league game.