A.J. Price led four Huskies in double figures with 24 points as UConn beat up on Buffalo 82-57 in the 2nd round of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic in front of 9,740 at Gampel Pavilion. UConn now advances to the semifinals at Madison Square Garden next Thursday where they will face Gardner-Webb, who beat Kentucky last night.
Besides Price’s 24 points, UConn was led by Jerome Dyson with 12 points, Jeff Adrien had 11 points and Stanley Robinson had a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Buffalo was led by Greg Gamble’s 13 points and 7 rebounds while Andy Robinson added 9 points.
UConn started out the game by jumping out to a 8-2 lead but Buffalo eventually took a 24-19 lead and the Huskies faithful wasn’t happy. Then the Price show happened as he led the Huskies on a 24-6 run to close out the first half with UConn leading 43-30 at the half.
The Huskies started the second half the same way the first half ended, on a nice 11-4 run to put them up by 19 points. A Robinson dunk gave the Huskies a 21-point lead and they never looked back from there.
The Huskies will be off until next Thursday’s semifinals matchup with Gardner-Webb. That game will be televised on ESPN2 and the game time hasn’t been determined yet.
Notes and Observations:
The starters were A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, Hasheem Thabeet, Stanley Robinson and Jeff Adrien.
You know this wasn’t planned as UConn will face Gardner-Webb again on November 20th at the Hartford Civic Center. This game was already on the schedule.
Robinson’s 13 rebounds were a career-high. He also blocked a career-high 6 shots.
UConn blocked 15 shots in all during the game.
Price’s 24 points were a career-high as well. He was also named the MVP of the Storrs Regional. He also made 11 of 12 free throws.
UConn shot 46.6% (27-58) in the game while holding Buffalo to 33.3% (23-69).
UConn was 25 for 37 (67.6%) from the free throw line.
