UConn men’s basketball alumni team Stars of Storrs cruises to first-round win in TBT debut

Blowout wins in single-elimination tournaments have been the way of UConn men’s basketball over the last two years. The Stars of Storrs , a team of mostly ex-Huskies, continued the trend as it debuted in The Basketball Tournament on Saturday evening.

Playing as the top seed in the Pittsburgh Regional, the Stars of Storrs blew past the No. 8 seed Herkimer Originals for an 85-52 victory .

R.J. Cole, who recently won a championship in Lithuania , led the former Huskies with 15 points and five assists, while T.J. Maston, a Baylor alum on the roster as a ringer, recorded a game-high 18. Elijah Thomas, another ringer who played at Clemson, added 15 and ex-Husky Rodney Purvis made a game-high three 3-pointers to get up to 13 points.

The team, coached by UConn’s all-time leading scorer Chris Smith, will meet the Happy Valley Hoopers , a team of Penn State alumni, in the second round at 6 p.m. on Monday as they look to keep their shot at the $1 million prize alive.

Cole was assisted by Jerome Dyson as he ended the first quarter with a 3-point buzzer-beater to put the Stars of Storrs, playing competitively together for the first time, up by six. They carried a 10-point lead into the half thanks to Herkimer shooting just 20.9% from the field.

The start to the second half was more of what UConn fans have gotten used to.

Joey Calcaterra, a member of the 2023 national championship team, helped fuel an 11-0 run that was capped off by a 3-pointer from Ryan Boatright, a 2014 champion. It was Maston who blew the game open with his consistency and physicality inside. He scored the last 10 points of the third quarter for the Stars of Storrs as the lead grew to 25, 63-38.

Boatright finished with eight points, four rebounds and six assists and Calcaterra added six points with four rebounds and two assists. Dyson finished with five, all from the free throw line, and at one point, exhausted, he stopped at the broadcasters table to remind them of his age (37).

The Basketball Tournament uses an “Elam Ending” format to decide games in the fourth quarter, where the game clock is turned off and a target score is set by adding eight points to the leading team’s score. UConn led 76-47 at the time of the Elam Ending and Purvis scored five of the last nine points to secure the win – a 3-pointer caused the score to go over its target.