The final game before the Christmas break started off a little slow for the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team but ended in a rout.
Kemba Walker led the No. 4/4 Huskies with 20 points in a very easy 81-52 win over the Harvard Crimson in front of 11,255 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT on Wednesday night.
The Huskies improve to 10-0 on the season while the Crimson fall to 7-3.
Jeremy Lamb added 11 points and four rebounds while Alex Oriakhi had 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Roscoe Smith chipped in with nine points and seven rebounds while Shabazz Napier had nine points and a game-high six assists.
Keith Wright led Tommy Amaker’s Crimson squad with 18 points and six rebounds. Laurent Rivard added 12 points while Brandyn Curry had 10.
Both teams struggled early on making a basket as it took almost two minutes for the Huskies to get on the board. Their next back basket came just over a minute later. The Crimson finally got on the board with 13:18 to go with two free throws that made it 11-2 UConn.
The Huskies leading 15-6, they went on a 13-0 run to open up a 22 point lead. The closest the Crimson would get in the first half was 21 points and that happened three times. But Roscoe Smith and Jeremy Lamb would hit back-to-back three-pointers to push the lead to 27 which would end up being the halftime margin as well at 48-21.
It was more of the same in the second half as Harvard would get no closer than 19 points.
Once the Huskies got going they looked good. One thing was for sure, they were a much better defensive squad this game then they were in their last one on Monday night. The defense was a good as they were while they were in Maui winning the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
The Huskies will probably get a few days off before heading out to Peterson Events Center and open up Big East play. They’ll take on the Pittsburgh Panthers on Monday, December 27th at 8:30 p.m. and the game will be nationally-televised on ESPN2.
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Notes and musings:
Harvard Crimson @ UConn Huskies 12.22.10 box score
Here are quotes from UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, Kemba Walker, Shabazz Napier, Alex Oriakhi, Enosch Wolf, Tyler Olander and Harvard coach Tommy Amaker.
The starters for UConn were Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Roscoe Smith, Alex Oriakhi and Charles Okwandu.
This was the 9th straight game that Walker has scored at least 20 points.
UConn shot 52.7% (29-55) from the floor while the Crimson shot 30% (18-60).
The Huskies had 16 assists on their 29 made baskets.
UConn was 6-of-12 (50%) from three-point land while the Crimson were just of 4-of-31 (12.9%).
The Huskies were 17-of-24 (70.8%) from the charity stripe.
UConn won the battle of the boards 42-31.
The Huskies outscored the Crimson 22-18 in the paint and 7-4 on the fast break.
UConn had 21 points off of 17 Harvard turnovers. The Crimson turned 16 Huskies turnovers into 16 points.
Photo credit: Stephen Dunn – Hartford Courant
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