Connecticut Huskies vs Marquette Golden Eagles Match Player Stats On Jan 05, 2021

Tyler Polley scored all of his career-high 23 points in the second half Tuesday night as Connecticut erased an 18-point second-half deficit to post a 65-54 Big East Conference win at Marquette.

Isaiah Whaley added 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Huskies (5-1, 2-1), who trailed 43-25 after Marquette's Dawson Garcia converted a layup with 15:39 left. But they ate up the entire deficit in just 7 1/2 minutes, taking the lead for good when Polley swished a 3-pointer with 6:11 left for a 51-50 edge.

That started a game-ending 17-4 burst that saw Polley and Whaley score all but three of Connecticut's points. It more than made up for a rare off-night from James Bouknight, who hit just 3 of 12 shots from the field in a six-point effort and played with an injured left arm during the second half. Bouknight was averaging 23.6 points per game.

Garcia scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Golden Eagles (6-6, 2-4), but didn't get enough help from his teammates. Marquette made just 38.6 percent of its field goal attempts and was swamped on the boards 42-28.

It was a 180-degree turn from the Golden Eagles' 64-60 win Saturday night at Georgetown, where they trailed by 18 in the second half's first minute before rallying.

Defenses dominated most of the first half. Marquette didn't score for the game's first 3:14 and managed just four points in the first six-plus minutes, but was fortunate to trail only 8-4 because Connecticut couldn't get off the mark.

Beginning with Garcia's 3-pointer with 13:31 left, the Golden Eagles found a little rhythm. That started a 10-2 spurt that gave them a 14-10 lead when D.J. Carton went length of the floor with a rebound and scored in transition.

The Huskies went 5:41 without scoring at one point before Whaley finally made a layup to end the drought. Marquette led by as many as 13 later in the half before an RJ Cole 3-pointer in the final minute enabled Connecticut to close the margin to 31-23 at intermission.

--Field Level Media