UConn’s Season Still Alive, Barely

Jerome Dyson had been missing in action over the final two weeks of the season and it probably cost the UConn Huskies a chance at playing in the NCAA Tournament. And if it weren’t for Dyson on Tuesday night, the Huskies would have gone one-and-done in the Postseason NIT.

Dyson put the Huskies on his back in the second half as he single-handedly led the comeback on the way to a 59-57 win over the Northeastern Huskies in front of 5,571 at Gampel Pavilion.

UConn (18-15) will now await the winner of the Quinnipiac/Virginia Tech game on Wednesday night to find out when they’ll play again (March 18-20 or 22). Northeastern ends it’s season at 20-13.

Dyson scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half, including 11 in the final 7 1/2 minutes of the game. He also had three rebounds and three assists. Stanley Robinson, who looked lost at times, finished with 14 points and six rebounds.

Alex Oriakhi added eight points and led UConn with nine rebounds while Gavin Edwards had eight points and four rebounds starting for the first time in forever.

Matt Janning, who torched the Huskies for 28 points last year, led Northeastern with 17 points. Manny Adako chipped in with 14 points while Nkem Ojougboh added 11 points and seven rebounds. Chaisson Allen rounded out the Northeastern players in double figures with 10 points.

UConn started out slowly as they looked like the awful team they’d been for the past two weeks. They trailed 10-4 before mounting their comeback. UConn then went on a 7-0 run to take a one point lead.

Northeastern responded with a 7-2 run to push their lead back to four. After the Huskies cut the lead to one on a Kemba Walker free throw at 19-18, Dyson would hit a free throw and then Walker would make two to give UConn the lead at 21-19.

An Adako tip-in would tie it up before UConn went on an 11-1 run to open up a ten point lead. UConn took a 34-26 lead into the locker rooms.

It was the same old thing for UConn to start the second half as they allowed the visiting Huskies to get back into the game over the first nine minutes. An Adako layup tied it up at 43 and from there Northeastern would push their lead to six at 54-48 with 5:58 to go.

But Dyson was on fire as he went on a 7-3 run to cut the lead to four. Robinson would tie it up on layup at 57 and two free throws by Dyson made it 59-57. Walker would have two chances to ice the game but he missed the front end of two one-and-ones but they survived as Baptiste Bataille’s three-pointer was off the mark.

This was definitely the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde UConn team that we’ve grown accustomed to watching all season long. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Jim Calhoun yelling at them and Dyson responding to it, the Huskies would be focusing solely on academics.

Instead, they’ll live to see at least one more game.

Notes and musings:

Northeastern Huskies @ UConn Huskies Postseason NIT First Round box score

The starters for UConn were Kemba Walker, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Gavin Edwards and Alex Oriakhi.

Despite the fact that tickets were just $10, only 5,571 showed up at Gampel Pavilion.

Jim Calhoun was Northeastern’s coach the last time they beat UConn in 1985, and Calhoun remains Northeastern’s all-time wins leader with 250.

UConn shot 44% (22-of-50) from the floor while Northeastern shot 41.1% (23-of-56).

Northeastern was 3-of-15 (20%) from three point land while UConn was 2-of-9 (22.2%).

UConn was 13-of-18 (72.2%) from the free throw line.

UConn won the battle of the boards 40-27.

Both teams had 30 points in the paint.

UConn had nine points off of six Northeastern turnovers. Northeastern had 15 points off of 12 UConn turnovers.