STORRS, Conn. — With about six minutes remaining in UConn’s win over Hartford on Friday, senior forward Isaiah Whaley dunked, giving a needed energy boost to the bench. In a span of a few minutes, he scored an easy layup off a Hartford turnover and added another dunk off the fast break that secured a 69-57 victory. The big man earned a double-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and a team-high four assists.
Whaley’s clutch performance highlighted the issues coach Dan Hurley saw with his team Friday: immaturity late in the first half and during the second. Hurley liked what he saw early, but then a 19-point lead dwindled to a three-point lead in the second half. That it was Whaley who stepped up made sense and was expected, but it shouldn’t have reached that point, Hurley said.
“We didn’t know how to act, we didn’t sustain it,” Hurley said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We were incredibly…
