Dom Amore: It was for reasons like this that Tyler Polley, Isaiah Whaley, R.J. Cole returned to UConn for one final go

Tyler Polley wasn’t ready to move on. With moments like this still in your dreams, and still possible, would you be?

Would Isaiah Whaley be? Or R.J. Cole?

They all came back for a fifth year of college at UConn, and they came back for moments like this, moments to show their will to win has been tempered into steel and they’re more determined than ever to finish unfinished collegiate business.

So maybe it’s a little too early to say a team has what it takes, but the Huskies sure looked like a team that does. There are four months to fix the flaws.

But while Auburn, the Huskies’ first big-league opponent, exposed plenty of reasons for them to feel vulnerable, this grueling, palpitating, March-Madness kind of a game Wednesday also showed UConn’s biggest reason for confidence: grown men are available when the situation calls for them.

“Big time,” Cole said, after UConn’s 115-109 win over Auburn in double OT at the Battle 4 Atlantis. “This is why you come to UConn, you want to be in games like these, be in moments like these and come out on top. Continue to weather the storm.”

And was there ever a storm and a need for Polley, Whaley and Cole to be there to lead the Huskies through it. After their 15-point lead was washed away by Bruce Pearl’s relentless pressure defense, UConn needed Whaley to come up with the most important rebound of the day, needed Polley to hit a 3-pointer that helped send the game to overtime, needed Cole to come up with any number of momentum-changing baskets.

After UConn polished off the last of its four mid-major opponents, a lackluster win over Binghamton on Saturday, coach Dan Hurley popped in a tape of Auburn and, he said, got sick to his stomach at the thought of this first-round match in the Bahamas.

He was even more seasick, one guesses, when Auburn rushed out to a 21-10 lead after 9 1/2 minutes. Hurley called time and reminded his players they were in “a steel cage” match, and it was time to hit back.

Adama Sanogo, who scored UConn’s first 10 points, took a breather and other, notably freshman Jordan Hawkins, took over, with Cole and Polley hitting the first of their momentum changing shots. After a 29-10 run, the Huskies were in control until late in the second half.

Then Auburn’s pressure defense began forcing turnovers again and the Huskies looked gassed. Cole was at the line with 14 seconds left trying to tie it, and he missed the second shot. Whaley, who hadn’t scored in the game, chased down the rebound, got it to Polley in the right corner and he didn’t hesitate, as he once might have; he buried it.

The pandemic gave Whaley and Polley the chance to come back another year, and neither hesitated. They came back.

For this.

“For sure, that’s one of the reasons I came back, just to compete with my brothers again,” Polley said. “Just to have a chance to play at UConn is something special, that I don’t take for granted. To have another chance, I couldn’t pass that up, to have an opportunity to play like this, to play well in games like this.”

Polley never played better in a game like this. He scored 24 points in 33 minutes, with 11 coming in overtime.

Whaley did the dirty work for 43 minutes before fouling out, and ultimately fainting, apparently from exhaustion. Two points, seven rebounds, four assists, four blocks. UConn says he’s fine.

And Cole, the transfer from Howard who graduated last May, scored 24 points, 10 in overtime.

The veteran presence can’t be overstated in a game like this. Freshman Jordan Hawkins, in his second game, made a splash with his 3-point shooting and scored 16, but with UConn about to close the game out in the second overtime, he lost the ball. There was defeat on his face; the veterans got around him.

“We told him, ‘We got you,’” Cole said. “and we got the win.”

Tyrese Martin, Whaley and Andre Jackson had all fouled out by the time the second OT began. Sanogo, with four fouls, was playing tough but smart, like a seasoned pro to finish the game with 30 points, but UConn was going to need threes now. Polley delivered two daggers and UConn took a lead for good.

True, the Huskies, up nine with 52 seconds left, put on a virtual clinic on how not to close out a game before Jalen Gaffney hit two at the line, but in the end that didn’t matter. Finally, UConn’s 24 turnovers no longer mattered, nor did the slow start, the second half unravel, nor the fact that the game was played in a ballroom before about 1,000 people in the Bahamas. This was a game of survival, as intense as November gets, and with the steady, calloused hands and weathered faces of experienced players, UConn survived, and advanced to play Michigan State on Thanksgiving Day.

“Our guys, they’re tough,” Hurley said, “they’re battle tested and the program has been through a lot these last couple of years. We’re finally climbing this mountain and getting good again and starting to resemble UConn again, and we’re not going to let you knock us off that easily. You’ve got to try to kill us to beat us.”

Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com