Gilbert scores 21 and UConn jets past New Hampshire 88-62

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — 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

New Hampshire is off until Dec. 30 when it hosts Dartmouth.

UConn returns to action on Dec. 29 when it hosts New Jersey Institute of Technology in its second-to-last non-league game.

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