A.J. Price had 23 points to lead the No. 4 UConn Huskies to a 76-61 Big East win over the Seton Hall Pirates in front of an announced crowd of 15,572 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.
It’s the 5th straight win and 8th straight over Seton Hall for UConn and improves their record to 16-1 (5-1 Big East) while Seton Hall falls to 9-8 (0-5).
Price also had 5 assists. Hasheem Thabeet added his 8th double-double of the season and 17th of his career with 15 points and 17 rebounds and added 4 assists. Mr Double-Double, Jeff Adrien had his 7th double-double of the season and 40th of his career with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Jerome Dyson had a rough afternoon from the floor going 3-of-13 for 7 points but did add a game-high 6 assists.
Seton Hall was led by Jeremy Hazell who had 20 points and Robert Mitchell, who had 19 points and 9 rebounds. Eugene Harvey and Paul Gause both added 7 points and John Garcia had a team-high 9 rebounds to go along with 6 points.
The first 5 minutes of the game was a see-saw affair that saw the teams exchange baskets and the lead. The Huskies took the lead for good at the 14:47 mark at 12-11 when Price hit a jumper. The lead got out to 28-19 behind Price and Dyson who combined for 15 points.
The Pirates got the lead back down to 5 points but UConn eventually got it back to ten at 33-23 when Price banked a 3-pointer off a Stanley Robinson blocked shot. The three-pointer by Price was part of a 14-3 run that saw the Huskies take 42-26 lead at the half.
Seton Hall came out firing in the second half scoring the first 6 points before Price hit a 3-pointer to put the Huskies up 45-32. After that, it was the play of Thabeet, who scored 13 points in the second half, that got the Huskies lead as high as 22 points.
The Pirates didn’t quit though as they got back to thirteen points at 70-57 with 3:36 left in the game but Price hit Thabeet for an alley-oop to put the game out of reach.
Things won’t get any easier for the Huskies this week as they will host the No. 22/23 Villanova Wildcats on Wednesday night and then head to South Bend, IN for a matchup with the No. 13/12 Notre Dame Fightin’ Irish. Both games start at 7 PM and will be televised nationally on ESPN.
Notes and musings:
Seton Hall Pirates @ UConn Huskies men’s basketball 1.18.09 box score
The starters were A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
The Huskies shot 50.8% (31-61) from the floor while the Pirates shot 40.3% (25-62).
UConn had 20 assists on their 31 made baskets while Seton Hall had just 6 total in the game.
Thank god UConn didn’t have to rely on their free throw shooting tonight because they were just AWFUL!!! They were 8-of-18 (44.4%). The big culprits were Jeff Adrien (3-8) and Hasheem Thabeet (3-7).
UConn had just 7 turnovers in the game while Seton Hall had 10. UConn converted those 10 turnovers into 16 points.
UConn has not lost the rebounding battle yet this season (they tied with Buffalo) and they didn’t again this information holding a 40-33 advantage.
The Huskies had a total of 9 blocked shots, including the 4 by Thabeet.
