A.J. Price scored a career-high 36 points to help the No. 2 UConn Huskies to a 92-83 win over the No. 8 Marquette Golden Eagles in front of 19,091 hostile fans at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI.
For UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, he became the 7th Division I coach to reach 800 wins. He needs just 4 wins to tie Eddie Sutton for 6th all-time.
The Huskies improve to 26-2 (14-2 Big East) while the Golden Eagles fall to 23-5 (12-3). With two games to play, UConn holds a ½ game lead over the Louisville Cardinals.
With 7:34 to go in the game, the Huskies were trailing by one point at 74-73 when they went on an 11-0 run behind 6 points by Stanley Robinson to take control of the game. Marquette used a 7-0 run to cut UConn’s lead to 3 at 84-81 but the Huskies closed out the game on an 8-1 run.
Besides the 36 points, Price added 6 assists and 6 rebounds. Stanley Robinson had a great game tonight as he had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Hasheem Thabeet added a double-double as well with 14 points and 15 rebounds to go along with 5 blocked shots. Kemba Walker added 9 points and Scottie Haralson chipped in with 6 points.
Jerel McNeal led the way for the Golden Eagles with 26 points and 5 assists. Wesley Matthews added 20 points and Lazar Hayward had 15 points and 6 rebounds. Marquette did lose one of their best players, Dominic James, to a broken foot about 4 minutes into the game.
The Huskies started fast getting out to a 7-2 lead and kept the lead around 5-7 points until an 8-0 run by the Golden Eagles gave them an one point lead at 20-19. Price gave the Huskies the lead with a three but Marquette went on another 8-0 run to take a 28-22 lead.
Then the Huskies took over as they went on a 16-0 run to take an 8 point lead. Marquette got it down to 3 points with just over a minute remaining in the half before Haralson drained a three to give UConn a 43-37 lead at the break.
Marquette fell behind by 11 points in the second half but got back into the game on a 12-0 run to take an one point lead.
Great win for the Huskies tonight in a very hostile environment. While the play of Jeff Adrien was disappointing (0 points, 4 rebounds), it was great to see Stanley Robinson step up his play. And what we can we say about Price. He was simply spectacular tonight. The Huskies needed their leader and he gave them that and helped his coach to career win No. 800.
Next up for the Huskies is their Senior Day festivities on Saturday afternoon when they play host to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Gampel Pavilion. The game is scheduled to start around 2 PM and it will be televised nationally on CBS.
For those attending the game, the Senior Day festivities will start at approximately 1:35 PM.
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Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ Marquette Golden Eagles 2.25.09 men’s basketball box score
The starters were A.J. Price, Craig Austrie, Stanley Robinson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
The crowd tonight was the largest ever to watch a college basketball game in the state of Wisconsin.
The win for UConn snapped Marquette’s 17-game home winning streak.
UConn is 13-0 on the road this season.
The Huskies have won 15 of their last 16 games and 13-of-15 over ranked opponents.
