Given the way the UConn Huskies men’s basketball came out of the gates, you have to wonder if maybe they were already in the Bahamas, the site of their next three games after Sunday afternoon’s tilt against the Coppin State Eagles.
But a strong effort from Shabazz Napier, who had a triple-double, helped the Huskies to an 87-70 win over the Eagles in front of 11,397 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.
It’s the 15th straight win for No. 4 UConn who improves to 4-0. Coppin State falls to 1-3.
Napier played almost the entire 40 minutes and was outstanding throughout. He finished the afternoon with 22 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds. Jeremy Lamb, who had been a game time decision after spraining his ankle in practice on Saturday, led all scorers in the game with 25 points.
After being demoted from the starting lineup in the last game, Roscoe Smith rebounded with a nice performance off the bench with 15 points and four rebounds. Tyler Olander had his second straight double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.
The Eagles were led by Tony Gallo’s 21 points and he had a team-high six assists. Akeem Ellis chipped in with 16 points and led them with seven rebounds while Michael Harper had 15 points.
UConn got out to a 6-4 lead before an Ellis three put the Eagles up 7-6. Coppin State then went on an 8-2 run to push their lead to seven at 15-8. After a Napier three cut their lead to four, the Eagles went on a 9-1 run to open up a 12 point lead at 24-12 with 10:42 to go in the half.
An old fashioned three-point play by Harper increased their lead to 13 at 27-14 before the Huskies woke up and mounted their comeback. It started on the defensive end as they increased the pressure that led to a 20-2 run that gave UConn a 34-29 lead with 3:14 to go in the half.
Collin Johnson’s three tied the game up at 34 before Lamb scored the final seven points of the half to give the Huskies a 41-34 lead at the break.
Lamb’s run continued as he scored the first five points of the second half to push UConn’s lead to 12. Their lead would hover around the 12-14 point mark throughout the first part of the second half before a DeAndre Daniels’ three pushed it to 17 with 10:20 to go.
Napier and Lamb made sure though that the Eagles would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way to ensure UConn’s victory.
After a breakout game, Andre Drummond fell off in this one. He got into a little bit of foul trouble and that certainly didn’t help. Alex Oriakhi also didn’t play well in this game and has been the case all season long, Olander was the best big man on the floor for the Huskies. Nice to see Roscoe break back into things. He was a big part of UConn’s success last year and needs to be again this year.
Right now this UConn team is still lacking an identity. We’ve seen Napier and Lamb carry this team so far this season and there’s going to come a point where they’ll be shutdown.
Hopefully this little jaunt to the Bahamas will get the team a little closer and get them play as a more cohesive unit. It worked for the team last year when they went to Maui and won the EA Sports Maui Invitational. Could the same thing be in order at the Battle for Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
The Huskies will open the tournament on Thursday night against the UNC Asheville Bulldogs at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on HDNet.
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Notes and musings:
Coppin State Eagles @ UConn Huskies 11.20.11 box score
Here are the postgame quotes from UConn head coach Jim Calhoun as well as a few of his players.
Former Huskies All-Americans Kemba Walker and Hasheem Thabeet were seen sitting behind the UConn bench.
Shabazz Napier’s triple-double was just the ninth in UConn Huskies men’s basketball history. Walker has the last one last year against the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
The 15 game winning streak is the third longest winning streak in school history.
The starting five for the Huskies was Shabazz Napier, Jeremy Lamb, DeAndre Daniels, Tyler Olander and Alex Oriakhi.
The Huskies shot 55.9% (33-59) from the floor while the Eagles shot 39.1% (27-69).
UConn had 21 assists on their 33 made baskets.
The Huskies were 7-of-18 (38.9%) on three-pointers. Coppin State was 12-of-31 (38.7%).
UConn was once again awful at the charity stripe as they were 14-of-25 (56%). Niels Giffey was the big culprit as he was 1-of-5. DeAndre Daniels was 0-for-2.
After being outrebounded 24-21 at the half, UConn finished the game with a 42-36 advantage on the glass.
The Huskies had 11 points off of nine Eagles turnovers. Coppin State had 12 points off of eight UConn turnovers.
UConn outscored the Eagles 40-24 in the paint and 22-9 on the fast break.
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