Scottie Reynolds scored a career high 40 points leading 3 Villanova players in double figures to a 78-74 victory over the UCONN Huskies at Gampel Pavilion on Tuesday night. 6th year senior Curtis Sumpter added 18 points and 10 rebounds while Mike Nardi chipped in 10 points. UCONN also had 3 players in double figures as well. Jerome Dyson and Jeff Adrien both had 20 points while Craig Austrie had 10 points.

The game started out slowly for UCONN as they were 1 for 12 from the field to start the game but Villanova was only able to build a 4 point lead at 8-4. UCONN actually took the lead at 13-9 but Villanova regained the lead and never looked back. UCONN did kept it close but the Wildcats too a 6 point lead into the locker room at the half.

UCONN started the second half slowly as well as they did get the lead to within 2 points but a 7-0 run by the Wildcats ended up getting the lead back up to 12. Villanova kept the lead at around 6 to 8 points for most of the second half before an 11-2 run got the Huskies back to within a point. Sumpter pulled down a huge offensive rebound after a missed foul shot by Reynolds that put the Wildcats up 3. UCONN then began to foul and ‘Nova made most of their free throws down the stretch as UCONN could not get close enough to pull out the victory.

  • The starters were Price, Dyson, Johnson, Thabeet, and Adrien.
  • Adrien had his Big East leading 15th double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
  • Even though Dyson had 20 points, he was absolutely horrible from the field, shooting 4 of 14, including 3 of 10 from beyond the arc. He was 9 of 14 from the free throw line.
  • Austrie wasn’t much better from the floor either shooting 3 of 10 from the floor, including 2 of 7 from 3 point land.
  • UCONN as a team was only 6 of 23 (26%) from 3 point land.
  • Doug Wiggins took a hard foul from Reynolds where his legs were taken out. He hit the floor very hard and didn’t return to the game.
  • What is the one thing that I have said was killing the Huskies all season? Free throws. They were horrendous from the line again. They did get to the line 44 times, making only 24 of them. In a game they lose by 4 points, these missed free throws are a big reason as to why they lost.
  • At one point in the first half, there 14 made baskets and 19 fouls by the two teams. In the game, there was a total of 53 fouls called with 32 on ‘Nova and 21 on UCONN.
  • UCONN did win the battle of the boards 49-42. That was about the only thing that they won.

I honestly thought that after they clinched a spot in the Big East Tournament last week, that UCONN would come out and play a little more relaxed. But that hasn’t been the case. They are definitely showing their youth and inexperience.

With the loss, UCONN falls to 17-12 (6-9 in the Big East). They conclude the regular season on March 3rd with a trip to our nation’s capital to take on the much improved Georgetown Hoyas. Gametime is 12:00 Noon and will be shown on CBS.

TechnoratiTechnorati: , ,