Hartford — No shortage of interesting developments in UConn's convincing victory on Sunday.

For a change, the frontcourt, not the backcourt, carried the Huskies.

They also heavily relied on their supporting cast.

Coach Dan Hurley opted to go that route once he benched star guard Jalen Adams for the final 18 minutes of the American Athletic Conference game against East Carolina before 8,873 fans at the XL Center. He already was without starting guard Alterique Gilbert, who missed his second straight game with an injured shoulder.

"His game was over at that point, irregardless of where the score went," said Hurley, who barked at Adams before the senior took a seat. "We could have lost by 18, he was done."

It ended up being a galvanizing moment.

The Huskies (13-9, 4-5) responded with a dominating stretch and finished with a feel-good 76-52 win. From the time Adams went to the bench, they outscored East Carolina (9-12, 2-7), 39-21, the rest of the way.

"It's tough losing a player like Jalen," sophomore Tyler Polley said, "but we just had to rally around each other and play as a team and play together, and that's what we did."

Polley did his part on both ends of the court. He helped contain ECU standout Jayden Gardner, whose nine points and six rebounds were well below his season averages of 18.8 points and 9.4 rebounds. He also had his best offensive output in almost two months, chipping in 13 points. Frontcourt partner Josh Carlton had a monster game, finishing with career highs in points (20) and rebounds (16).

Carlton is the first UConn player to have at least 15 points and 15 rebounds in a game since 2010 when Alex Oriakhi accomplished the feat with 15 points and 17 rebounds against Michigan State in the Maui Invitational. He had his first career double-double by halftime.

"I was just trying to come out and establish myself in the game," Carlton said. "With Alterique being out the last couple of games, everybody else has been trying to step it up and replace what he usually gives us."

Other members of UConn's supporting cast also filled in the scoring void left by Gilbert and Adams. Reserve Sidney Wilson scored a career-best 12 points and graduate guard Tarin Smith, who replaced Gilbert in the starting lineup, had 11 points and three assists.

It was an ugly start by both teams. Neither could find any offensive rhythm. The Huskies had nine of their 12 turnovers before halftime.

UConn emerged from a scoring funk first, building a 32-26 halftime lead behind Carlton's inside play. He had 12 points and 10 rebounds at the break.

Then things got interesting.

Upset with Adams, Hurley replaced his leading scorer two minutes into the second half. When the  senior guard walked past Hurley on the way to take a seat, the UConn coach yelled: "Where are you going? I'm not done."

Adams missed all six of his shots and went scoreless for the first time since March of his freshman season. He had been on a tear, averaging 24 points in the previous five games.

"He had a moment of weakness there," Hurley said. "He's better than that. As a senior leader, you have a responsibility to set a great example for your teammates about accepting coaching and playing the right way. A little bit of his frustration from the game probably crept into that."

"We'll obviously sit down and talk about what happened shortly and you will not see that again."

From that point on, the Huskies dug in on defense. They started to move the ball better. They understood Adams wasn't there to rescue them.

The Huskies gradually extended a six-point lead (37-31) to double digits. Smith had nine points after Adams departed. Polley's two free throws capped a 12-2 run and pushed the gap to 65-45 with 5:25 left.

Junior Christian Vital stepped up his play, scoring 11 of his 18 points after intermission to go with seven rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers overall.

"You wouldn't think we'd get better at both ends when our best player got benched for the second half, but that's what happened," Hurley said.

What stood out to Hurley is his team's defensive effort, something that he's been harping on in practice. The Pirates shot an icy 33.3 percent from the field and made only eight field goals in the second half.

Now the Huskies begin their toughest stretch of the season, playing four of their next six games on the road starting with a trip to Temple on Wednesday.

g.keefe@theday.com