There was a lot of hype coming into today’s UConn Huskies vs Pittsburgh Panthers game about the battle between Hasheem Thabeet and DeJuan Blair. Other than a brief skirmish between the two in the second half, there wasn’t much to talk about about between them.
On the other hand, the Huskies had no answer for Sam Young as he put up a season-high 31 points to beat the Huskies before a packed house at the Peterson Events Center on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
It’s just the the third loss of the season for the Huskies (27-3, 15-3 Big East) and it assures them of the third seed in the upcoming Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. Pittsburgh (27-3, 15-3) will be the No. 2 seed in the Big East Tournament and both teams could clinch a share of the Big East title with a Louisville loss to West Virginia later tonight.
A.J. Price led the Huskies with 19 points. Hasheem Thabeet had 14 points (all in the first half), 13 rebounds and 5 rebounds while Jeff Adrien had 11 points and 8 rebounds. Kemba Walker rounded out the Huskies in double-digits with 10 points. Stanley Robinson pulled down 12 boards to go with his 6 points.
Brad Wanamaker added 13 points for the Panthers with Levance Fields adding 10 points and 12 assists. DeJuan Blair finished with 8 points and 8 rebounds.
The Huskies never really got in a flow offensively in the first half although they kept the game close as the teams exchanged the lead early on. With the Huskies leading 12-11, the Panthers went on a 12-2 run to open up a 10 point lead at 23-13.
Four points by Thabeet and a free throw by Robinson cut the Pitt lead to 5 but a 6-0 Pitt run opened the lead to 11 points. The Huskies would get as close as 6 points and went into the break trailing by 10 at 38-28.
Things started slowly for the Huskies in the second half as they quickly fell behind by 14 points at 42-28. An Adrien jumper with 14:59 to go cut the lead to 9 at 45-36 and then a Wanamaker layup gave Pitt a 14 point lead at 52-38 with 12:23 to go forcing Jim Calhoun to take a timeout.
Whatever Calhoun said in the timeout worked as the Huskies bounced back with a 12-0 run behind Price to cut the lead to 52-50 with 8:26 remaining in the game. Price hit another three to make it 56-53 Pitt and then a 7-0 run by Pitt gave them a 10 point lead. The Huskies would get no closer than 8 points the rest of the way.
A true battle of heavyweights today that didn’t fall UConn’s way for the second time this season against the Panthers. Both teams will be heavily talked about for No. 1 seeds in the upcoming NCAA Tournament and could meet up again in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament.
The Huskies did receive a double-bye in the Big East Tournament and will get underway on Thursday night sometime after 9 PM against an undetermined opponent on ESPN.
Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ Pittsburgh Panthers 3.7.09 men’s basketball box score
The starters were A.J. Price, Craig Austrie, Stanley Robinson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
This was the first loss for the Huskies on the road this season while the Panthers went undefeated at home.
Pitt came into the season 0-13 against No. 1 teams and is now 2-13 after beating UConn twice. They are the 5th team in the history of men’s basketball to do it. North Carolina was the last to do it back in 1997-98 when they beat Duke.
UConn shot 37.7% (23-of-61) while the Panthers shot 44.1% (30-of-68).
The Huskies had 12 assists on their 28 made baskets.
UConn was awful at the free throw line as they were 10-of-19 (52.6%).
The Huskies were outrebounded 41-40 and outscored in the paint 45-32. Pitt also outscored the Huskies 23-16 on the fastbreak.
UConn turned the ball over 11 times while Pitt had only 8 turnovers.
