Chris Douglas-Roberts scored a career-high 33 points for Memphis as they came back after being ahead early to beat UConn 81-70, to win the championship of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic.
Douglas-Roberts also had 7 rebounds and ESPN The Mag cover boy Derrick Rose had a career-high 24 points for the Tigers. A.J. Price led the way for the Huskies for the second night in a row with 23 points. Jerome Dyson added 17 points including a nasty dunk over Joey Dorsey. Hasheem Thabeet did most of his damage at the free throw line tonight as he was 7-7, finishing with 11 points and 9 rebounds.
Memphis (4-0) got out of the gates quick as they took a 10-0 lead and with eventually go up 20-5. When Dorsey went out with two fouls for the Tigers, the Huskies worked themselves back into the game finishing the half with a 36-20 run to take a 1-point lead into the break.
The second half was a see-saw affair until Douglas-Roberts tied the game at 60 with two free throws at around the 9 minute mark. His two free throws were the start of the a 16-5 run that put the game out of reach for the Huskies at the 4 to go timeout. UConn tried to make one last run but it was not to be as the Tigers made some free throws down the stretch to stave off the upset-minded Huskies.
If you’re a fan of the Huskies, you saw a much improved team from last year. Price looks like he has his legs back and is ready to lead this team to the next level. I’ll take an NCAA berth.
I always preach making your free throws because it will help you win the game. While UConn was 27-38 (71.1%), some of those misses were at key times, like the front end of one-and-ones. If you look at the 11 missed free throws by the Huskies, thats the final margin of the score.
UConn (3-1) is off until Tuesday when they will face the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs for a second time in 5 days. Tip-off is at 7:30 PM at the Hartford Civic Center and the game will be covered locally on MyTV9.
I added this AP pic because it’s pretty cool if you look at it.
