No. 21 UConn stuns No. 10 Marquette with a dominant 87-72 win

The Huskies, who finished at No. 2 in the rankings this season, had no problem getting past Shaka Smart and Marquette on Tuesday night. (David Butler II/USA today)

Marquette’s rise may have reached its limits.

No. 21 UConn absolutely demolished the Golden Eagles 87-72 Tuesday night at the XL Center in Hartford. The loss gave No. 10 Marquette a five-game winning streak that came amid an impressive run and rise up the national rankings.

The Huskies never fell behind in the first half on Tuesday night, building a 20-point lead at one point. They also closed the opening period with a wild halffield shot from Nahiem Alleyne and went into the break 17 points clear after shooting 55% from the field as a team.

The Huskies continued into the second half, fully outplaying Marquette before extending their lead to 25 points midway through the third. From there, UConn just held on to claim the 15-point win.

Tristen Newton led UConn with a triple-double and finished with 12 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. Jordan Hawkins added 20 points after shooting 5 of 8 from behind the arc. Adama Sanogo added 18 points and seven rebounds, and Alleyne finished the game with 13 points off the bench. UConn shot 50% from the field and more than 52% from the 3-point line, passing Marquette by 25.

Tyler Kolek led Marquette with 17 points, and both Stevie Mitchell and Ben Gold finished with 12 points. They were the only three to score double digits for the Golden Eagles.

Marquette started the season unranked and with little real expectation in the Big East. But after a wild 26-point blowout win over then-No. 6 Baylor in November, the Golden Eagles quickly climbed the ranks and climbed to first place in the Big East standings.

Marquette started Tuesday night after winning 13 of his last 16 games, with two narrow conference losses and a three-point loss to Wisconsin as the only slips along the way. The Golden Eagles also jumped to 10th place in the latest AP poll this week, their highest ranking in about four years.

In theory it should have at least competed with UConn. The Huskies, who were No. 2 at the start of this season, have fallen heavily in recent weeks after losing twice to Xavier, Providence and even Marquette in Milwaukee last month. That previous matchup came in the midst of a stretch in which UConn lost six out of eight games.

The Huskies needed to rally late Saturday to beat the lowly Georgetown, who have only one Conference win this season. UConn will take on No. 23 Creighton next Saturday, which should be a big boost in the latter part of their schedule.

For Marquette, however, it’s a different story. If Tuesday’s stumble is nothing more than a reality check for Shaka Smart’s group, there’s no reason they can’t rally to claim a Big East title for the first time in program history. If not, things could get bad, and fast.

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