In the first nine games of the UConn Huskies men’s basketball season, we’ve seen Andre Drummond barely scratch the surface of his potential. On Sunday afternoon, he broke through it.
Drummond led the way with a career-high 24 points to help the Huskies to a 77-40 win over the Holy Cross Crusaders in front of 13,396 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.
The Huskies improve to 9-1 on the season while the Crusaders fall to 4-7.
Drummond’s career-high on came on 11-of-12 shooting from the floor while pulling down eight rebounds and five blcoked shots. Alex Oriakhi added 15 points and four rebounds. Despite shooting 4-of-16 from the floor, Jeremy Lamb added 10 points and seven rebounds.
Shabbaz Napier chipped in with a career-high 13 assists, many of them coming to Drummond while scoring just three points.
Norwich, CT native R.J. Evans paced the Crusaders with 15 points. Phil Beans added eight points while Dave Dudzinski led Holy Cross with seven rebounds.
With the final margin of the game being 37 points, this game was a lot closer early on UConn was a little slow out of the gates in their first game since final exams ended on Friday.
Holy Cross stayed with UConn for the first 10 minutes or so of the game. They got out to a quick 5-2 lead on a three from Beans and a layup by Evans. The Huskies battled back to take the lead on baskets by Oriakhi and Tyler Olander.
A Malcolm Miller three tied it up for Holy Cross at 10 and then Devin Brown’s three gave the Crusaders their last lead of the game at 13-12. UConn then went on a 7-0 run to open up a six point lead. Holy Cross battled back to two points at 19-17 but from there it would all UConn.
With 6:38 to go in the first half, the Huskies were holding on to a 25-21 lead. From there though, things started clicking as they went on an 18-3 run to close out the half to take a 43-24 lead.
It was more of the same in the second half as the Huskies continued to grow their lead behind Drummond and Napier.
While Lamb struggled offensively, he played great on the defensive end. But the big story of the game was Drummond.
While a good portion of his points came on dunks and/or layups, Drummond showed some post moves that we haven’t seen from him in the first nine games. As he continues to get more comfortable on the court, he can only get better.
A solid win nonetheless playing for the first time in 10 days.
Next up for the Huskies is matchup with the Fairfield Stags. For UConn’s Tyler Olander, it will be the first collegiate matchup with his brother Ryan who plays for the Stags. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the XL Center and the game will be broadcast locally on SNY.
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Notes and musings:
Holy Cross Crusaders @ UConn Huskies 12.18.11 box score
Here are the postgame quotes from UConn head coach Jim Calhoun and Holy Cross head coach Milan Brown. Player quotes are available underneath the coach’s quotes.
The starters for the Huskies were Shabazz Napier, Jeremy Lamb, DeAndre Daniels, Alex Oriakhi and Andre Drummond.
UConn shot 50% (34-68) from the floor for the game while the Crusaders shot 26.2% (16-61).
The Huskies had 23 assists on their 34 made baskets.
UConn was just 2-of-12 (16.7%) on threes. The Crusaders were 6-of-18 (33.3%).
The Huskies were 7-of-12 (58.3%) from the charity stripe.
UConn won the battle of the boards outrebounding Holy Cross 45-38.
The Huskies had 18 points off of 17 Crusaders turnovers. Holy Cross had eight points off seven UConn turnovers.
UConn outscored Holy Cross 58-18 in the paint and 26-4 on the fast break. UConn 12 second chance points to nine for the Crusaders.
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Photo credit: AP Photo
