If anyone thought the No. 2 UConn Huskies were going to have an easy time of things in paradise, you thought wrong. The La Salle Explorers gave the Huskies all they can handle but the play of Jeff Adrien and Kemba Walker helped spark them to an 89-81 win in the 1st round of the Paradise Jam at the University of the Virgin Islands.
The Huskies will now take on the University of Miami Hurricanes, who beat Southern Mississippi 70-60, on Sunday night at 6 PM EST in the semifinals.
Adrien had 22 points and 14 rebounds for the 37th double-double of his career. Walker actually led the Huskies (3-0) in scoring with a career-high 23 points and added 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Jerome Dyson had another good game as he chipped in with 17 points and A.J. Price had 12 points in his return to the lineup. Hasheem Thabeet added 9 points and 7 rebounds.
For the Explorers (1-2), Rodney Green led all scorers with 25 points. Yves Mekongo Mbala had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists while Ruben Guillendeaux had 13 points as well. Vernon Goodridge finished with 12 points and 8 rebounds before fouling out late in the game.
The Explorer’s used their athleticism to their advantage throughout the first half and clearly looked like they were the No. 2 team in the country at times. The Huskies may have enjoyed an overall height advantage but the one area where La Salle enjoyed that height advantage was at the guard position and it showed early on as La Salle got out to a 13-6 lead. The Huskies hung tough though when Walker came off the bench to help the Huskies get back in the game.
Two Adrien free throws tied the game up at 23 with 9:07 to go in the half and the teams exchanged baskets until a Mbala old fashioned 3-point play put the Explorers back out front 30-29. Baskets by Price, Adrien and Walker gave the Huskies a 5-point lead but a Guillendeaux 3-pointer tied the game up at 40 with just under a minute to go. The Huskies closed out the half on a 6-0 run behind 2 baskets by Walker and one by Adrien to take a 46-40 lead to the locker room.
Dyson pushed the lead to 8 right out of the gate in the 2nd half but the Explorers hung tough cutting the lead to 4 at 50-46 on two Paul Johnson free throws. Walker and Thabeet got the lead back to 8 for the Huskies but 6 straight points by Green got the lead back down to 2 points at 56-54.
After an Adrien layup, Green hit a 3 to cut the lead to 1 before a 6-0 run by the Huskies increase the lead to 62-55 and forced La Salle to call timeout. The Explorers responded though with a 6-0 run of their own to get the Huskies lead back down to 1 point. Dyson hit two free throws and then Price stole the ball and was intentionally fouled by Guillendeaux. Price hit both his free throws and Thabeet made 1-of-2 from the line. After a Guilldendeaux 3-point miss, Price put the nail in the coffin with a 3-pointer to make it 70-61 Huskies.
La Salle would get no closer than 6 the rest of the way as the Huskies hit 9-of-12 free throws down the stretch to put the game away.
It was a good win for the Huskies and definitely wasn’t as easy as Jim Calhoun would have liked. However, it was a good test for them. The zone Calhoun employed in the second half was key to slowing down La Salle and the play of Walker and Adrien didn’t hurt either.
Walker is going to be a special player in his time at UConn and it showed tonight as when he came in, he allowed the Huskies to play at the pace they were looking for.
As I stated above, the Huskies will play the No. 16/17 Miami Hurricanes on Sunday night at 6 PM. The game will be broadcast on the Fox College Sports channel.
Notes and musings:
La Salle Explorers vs UConn Huskies, 1st round Paradise Jam 11.21.08 box score
The starters were A.J. Price, Craig Austrie, Jerome Dyson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
The Huskies shot 55.8% (25-52) while LaSalle also shot at just over 50% gong 34-of-67 from the floor.
UConn shot 30 more free throws than the Explorers as they were 29-of-40 (72.5%) while La Salle was 9-of-10 (90%). The Huskies did make 9-of-12 down the stretch but this is a number I think that needs to improve before the UConn heads into Big East play.
UConn barely won the battle of the boards 28-23.
The Huskies committed 12 turnovers while LaSalle had just 10. UConn had 10 points off the turnovers and the Explorers had 13.
La Salle outscored the Huskies 44-40 in the paint.
