It didn’t take long for the No. 2 UConn Huskies to draw the ire of head coach Jim Calhoun tonight. Just 2:10 into the game, he tied an NCAA record with 5 substitutions to send a message to his starting five.
Well, the starting five responded as they all scored in double figures in the Huskies 91-57 win over the Stony Brook Seawolves in front of 12,721 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.
Jeff Adrien led the Huskies (9-0) with his 36th career double-double. He finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Hasheem Thabeet narrowly missed a double-double as he had 18 points and 9 rebounds while Jerome Dyson had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Both A.J. Price and Craig Austrie added 13 points with Price having 5 assists and Austrie had 7 assists.
After taking the first semester off for personal reasons, Stanley Robinson returned to the court and had 7 points in 16 minutes of action.
The Seawolves, coached by former UConn player and assistant coach Steve Pikiell, led all scorers in the game with 20 points. He also pulled down a team-high 6 rebounds. Bryan Dougher added 10 points while Jonathan Moore chipped in with 8 points.
The 11-day layoff seemed to affect the Huskies early on as Calhoun made wholesale changes using 11 players in the first 3 minutes of the game. A Kemba Walker alley-oop pass to Robinson seemed to ignite the Huskies as they went on a 19-2 run to break the game open. With the Huskies up 20 in the last minute of the first half, Carter made 2 three-pointers to cut the lead to 44-30 at the half.
Dougher hit two 3’s for the Seawolves to cut the UConn lead to 12 at 53-41 but a 20-2 run by the Huskies pushed the lead to 30 at 73-43. With the layoff, Calhoun left his starters in a little longer than normal in the second half as they worked on some offensive sets and their defense.
UConn was clearly the superior team tonight as they used their height to their advantage as they dominated the glass 47-24.
They will need more of that as they will be tested with they head across country to take on Gonzaga Saturday afternoon at 4 PM in Seattle. The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS.
Notes and musings:
Stony Brook Seawolves @ UConn Huskies 12.15.08 box score
The starters were A.J. Price, Craig Austrie, Jerome Dyson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
Coming into tonight’s game, Jerome Dyson (851 career points) and A.J. Price (826 career points) are each on pace to join teammate Jeff Adrien (1,224 career points) in the UConn 1,000-point club.
With his one block tonight, Hasheem Thabeet needs one more to hit the 300 block plateau his career at UConn.
UConn is No. 2 in the country when counting alums on active 2008-09 NBA rosters. The Huskies have 12 former players on NBA rosters, trailing only Duke (14). The closest team in the Big East is Syracuse with 6.
Jim Calhoun is now 12-0 against his former assistant coaches.
The layoff didn’t seem to affect UConn’s shooting as they shot 62.7% (32-of-57) while holding the Seawolves to 32.4% (22-of-68).
UConn had 26 assists on their 32 made baskets.
The Huskies had a good night from 3-point land as they were 8-of-13 (61.5%).
UConn shot 70.4% (19-of-27) from the charity stripe.
The Huskies scored 38 points in the paint and had 24 fastbreak points.
The Seawolves committed just 8 turnovers while UConn had 16.
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