Jerome Dyson had 18 points, including the 1,000th point of his UConn career, to lead the No. 2 Huskies to a 71-49 Big East win over the DePaul Blue Demons at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL.
It’s the 8th straight win for the Huskies who improve to 19-1 (8-1 Big East) while the Blue Demons fall to 8-13 (0-8).
Three other Huskies were in double figures including Jeff Adrien, A.J. Price and Hasheem Thabeet. Adrien had his 6th straight double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds while Price finished with 12 points. Thabeet narrowly missed a double-double with 11 points and 9 rebounds along with 3 blocked shots. Craig Austrie came off the bench to score 9 points.
DePaul was led by Dar Tucker who led all scorers in the game with 20 points. Will Walker added 12 points and 6 rebounds in the losing effort.
DePaul got out to an early 8-5 lead before the Huskies responded with a 10-0 run. The lead for the Huskies swelled to 14 points at 34-20 before Tucker helped get the Blue Demons back in the game cutting UConn’s lead to 41-35 in the second half.
The Huskies turned up the defensive pressure in the 2nd half as they held DePaul without a field goal for the first 4:09. It didn’t help matters though as the Huskies were only able to increase their lead to 10 points. As time wore on though, the Huskies defensive pressure and athleticism on the offensive end were just too much for the Blue Demons as UConn continued to build it’s lead over time.
Plus it doesn’t help when you only score 14 points in the second half like DePaul did.
With the win tonight and Duke losing, the Huskies could take over the No. 1 spot in the land if they can beat the Providence Friars on Saturday afternoon at Gampel Pavilion. Tip is scheduled for 4 PM and the game will be televised locally on MyTV9.
Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ DePaul Blue Demons 1.28.09 men’s basketball box score
The starters were A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
A.J. Price’s 12 points leaves him 4 shy of 1,000 in his career with 996.
Dyson is the 41st player in UConn men’s history to reach 1,000 points.
Stanley Robinson continues to struggle as he didn’t score again and only played 11 minutes. He didn’t start the second half and didn’t come in until there was 2 minutes left.
UConn shot 47.4% (27-57) from the floor while the Blue Demons shot 38.2% (21-55).
UConn had just 12 assists on their 27 made baskets.
Good to see UConn’s free throw shooting improve as they hit 13-of-17 (76.5%).
The Huskies dominated the glass outrebounding DePaul 37-23.
