EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Even Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun had to step back and marvel at his team's second-half dismantling of Seton Hall.
"I'm not that impressed by my team very much, but we were very good tonight," Calhoun said after his top-ranked Huskies beat the Pirates 99-57 on Saturday night for their most lopsided Big East win ever. "I can't think of a game where we shared the ball so well and ran so well."
Rashad Anderson and Rudy Gay scored 18 points apiece for Connecticut (22-1, 9-1), which won its 11th straight game. UConn's previous largest margin in a Big East game was an 86-49 win over Boston College on Feb. 11, 1989.
The Huskies led 43-33 at halftime before outscoring Seton Hall 36-7 in the first 10:57 of the second half. Gay and Anderson combined to score 20 points during the run, and UConn had six dunks.
"That was probably the best half we've played all year," said Marcus Williams, who had 15 points and 10 assists. "We were really unselfish, we hit the glass, ran the offense and locked up on defense."
Seton Hall (15-7, 6-4), which had its six-game winning streak snapped, was led by Donald Copeland with 17 points. The Pirates have played two No. 1 teams this season and lost by a combined 95 points, absorbing a 93-40 setback at then-No. 1 Duke in November.
On Saturday, they kept pace until late in the first half, when the Huskies started to put it together.
"When they get it going on all cylinders, the game can slip away, and in a hurry," Seton Hall coach Louis Orr said. "We already know that they're a tough team rebounding and they get out in transition. Once they knock down shots, they're real tough."
Connecticut dominated inside and outside, outrebounding Seton Hall 60-32 and making 10 of 17 3-point attempts. In the second half, they shot 56 percent (23-for-41) from the field and held the Pirates to 23 percent (9-for-39).
Gay started the second-half surge with a fast-break dunk to begin a 14-4 spurt, and after that everything the Huskies tried seemed to work.
The lead was 57-39 when forward Josh Boone dunked an alley-oop pass from Williams. Seton Hall shifted to a 2-3 zone, and Williams immediately found Jeff Adrien (12 points) underneath for another dunk. Anderson followed with a 3-pointer, Adrien rebounded a miss and scored and Williams and Anderson had two more 3-pointers.
Seton Hall appeared to be trying to match the Huskies' tempo throughout instead of slowing the game down as many teams have tried.
"A lot of teams play us in a grind, not in a wide-open game," said Calhoun. "That played to our depth and our experience."
Seton Hall got a momentary scare when guard Jamar Nutter fell hard after being fouled by Hilton Armstrong on a fast break with 12:50 left in the game. He was taken to the locker room and returned to the bench but did not re-enter the game and was diagnosed with a bruised tailbone. He was expected to be ready to play Tuesday night when Seton Hall hosts No. 9 West Virginia.
Connecticut's next two games are on the road, at No. 4 Villanova on Monday and at No. 9 West Virginia on Saturday. Gay said he isn't sure if the rest of the conference will take notice of Saturday's big win but he hopes so.
"I think it's scary for the opposition," he said, "but we can't go into games thinking that's going to happen every night. I still think we have a lot of room for growth."
