A.J. Price was determined not to have another game like he did the other night in the win against West Virginia where had just 1 point.
And Price did just that as his 22 points and 5 assists helped lead the No. 5 UConn Huskies to a 81-72 Big East win over the Cincinnati Bearcats in front of 9,029 at Fifth Third Arena.
The win for UConn improves their record to 14-1 (3-1 Big East) while Cincinnati falls to 10-6 (0-3).
Jeff Adrien had his 38th career double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds while Jerome Dyson had 12 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Craig Austrie added 11 points and Kemba Walker also had 5 assists to go along with 7 points.
Deonta Vaughn paced the Bearcats with 19 points and 6 assists. Mike Williams had 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists while Yancy Gates had 12 points and 9 rebounds.
With UConn leading 19-11, Hasheem Thabeet and Gavin Edwards both picked up their second fouls and spent most of the rest of the half on the bench. The Bearcats were able to take advantage though they cut the lead to three at 19-16 before a Price 3-pointer pushed the lead back to 6.
With 5:12 to go in the half, Gates got the Bearcats to within one at 24-23 and the Bearcats eventually tied the game up at 27. It stayed close the rest of the first half until Price hit two three’s in the final minute of the half including a dagger of one to beat the buzzer to give UConn a 4 point lead at 38-34.
The second half was closely contested with UConn getting out to a lead as big as 9 points before the Bearcats cut it to five. But a 13-4 run capped off by a Price three pointer gave UConn control of the game. Cincinnati tried to get back into by fouling at the end but UConn made all but 2 of their free throws down the stretch. One of those misses was by Dyson who got his own rebound and made a layup to seal the deal for the Huskies.
The Huskies are now off for the next 5 days and will return to action on Thursday night when they head to the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, to take on the St. John’s Red Storm at 7 PM. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ Cincinnati Bearcats 1.10.09 box score
The starters were A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
Jim Calhoun is now just 12 wins away from reaching 800 in his career and just 10 wins away from reaching 550 at UConn.
Jim Calhoun has coached in more games (1,126) than any other active Division I head coach. Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Tom Penders are the only other active coaches with over 1,000 games coached.
Because Charles Okwandu wasn’t at the game today and the frontcourt had some foul trouble, Jim Calhoun had to play Jonathan Mandeldove, who he had planned to redshirt. I emailed David Borges of the New Haven Register who said he thinks it might erase his redshirt but he’ll know more later. So when he does, I’ll post it here.
The Huskies shot 58% (29-50) while the Bearcats shot 47.5% (29-61).
UConn had 18 assists on their 29 made baskets.
The Huskies were an abysmal 60% (15-25) from the charity stripe but hit them when it mattered most.
Both teams took decent care of the ball as UConn committed 10 turnovers and Cincinnati had 8.
The Huskies won the battle of the boards 31-26 and outscored the Bearcats 34-24 in the paint.
UConn had just 6 fast break points in the game.
Interesting stat as the Huskies were whistled for just 2 fouls in the second half compared to Cincinnati’s 10. UConn was called for 8 in the first half.
