UConn coach Kevin Ollie saw it coming.

He really did.

Ollie believed the Huskies were due to break out of their collective shooting funk. His players had put too much hard work in not to get some results.

On Sunday, Ollie said: “We’re going to burst something soon.”

The dam broke on Monday.

The Huskies shot a sizzling season-high 57.1 percent from the field in Monday’s 80-65 victory over Columbia at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport.

“It was a great game for us,” Ollie said.

It was only the second time this season that they’ve scored over 75 points.

UConn, which had dropped four of its last five coming in, improved to 5-4.

 Here’s a post-game breakdown:

 -- Nine different players scored for the Huskies, four more than cracked the scoring column in Thursday’s loss to Duke.

That’s a great sign.

Rodney Purvis had a career-high tying 21 points.

Senior Ryan Boatright (20) points), who led the team in scoring six of the first eight games, welcomed the help.

“It feels good to see my teammates stepping up and making shots,” Boatright said. “I’ve known that they can do that. They can do that every game.”

 -- The Huskies made their last eight field goal attempts in the final 8:33. Freshman Daniel Hamilton (11 points) converted three 3-pointers while Purvis made three field goals and Amida Brimah two.

 -- Columbia shot 57.1 percent (16-for-28) in the first half, 33.3 percent (10-for-30) in the second half.

“We stopped giving up layups,” Boatright said of the difference between the two halves.

 -- UConn has struggled against zone this season. The Huskies didn’t have a problem on Monday.

Ollie moved Hamilton to power forward to give his team another perimeter threat.

“When you put Daniel at the four, it really allows us to pick-and-pop and then you really can’t double-team Boatright like most teams do,” Ollie said.

It also helped that they converted 9-of-16 from 3-point range overall.

 -- Ollie barked at Hamilton for his erratic play during the second half. Hamilton responded, scoring nine of his 11 points after intermission.

“We really needed him and he stepped up big time in the last 12 minutes of the second half,” Ollie said.

 -- Junior Phil Nolan came down on the back of Boatright’s knee in the second half. Boatright headed to the bench but returned.

“I sprained it a little bit, but I’ll be all right,” Boatright said.

 -- It was good to see junior Omar Calhoun break out of his prolonged funk. His short jumper in the first half represented his basket since last season against Cincinnati on Feb. 5. He had missed 16 straight shots.

A knee injury sidelined Calhoun for the first seven games this season.

“It’s great to see Omar back out there,” Ollie said.

-- Reserve Terrence Samuel shook off a sprained ankle and contributed a valuable six points and a season-high four assists in 24 minutes.

It appeared doubtful that Samuel would play after he suffered an injury in the second half against Duke on Thursday.

“I actually didn’t know I was going to play until this morning,” Samuel said. “My ankle is still at 80-85 percent, but I had to give it a go. … I gave it everything that I had.”

With Samuel available, Olli could move Boatright off the ball and also give him a break chasing Maodo Lo (24 points).

“A big 24 minutes,” Ollie said of Samuel’s contribution.

 -- After scoring in double figures in consecutive games for the first time in his career, sophomore Kentan Facey had only two points on Monday. He missed his only shot.

 -- Ollie on his team’s all-around performance: “You can really see what our team can be when we start making shots and still play solid defense.”

 -- Columbia scored more points in the paint (32-22) than UConn.

 -- The Huskies had more assists (18) than turnovers (10) for only the third time this season.

-- Brimah bounced back from a scoreless game against Duke by contributing 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks.

 --Ollie started his press conference by wishing everyone, "Merry Christmas."

Former UConn coach Jim Calhoun once said this during a post-game press conference: “I’d liked to wish you Merry Christmas, but I can’t.”

It was classic Calhoun, who was too ticked off to spread holiday cheer after a sub-par performance in a win.