Call it a Maui hangover, or the pressure of a young team being ranked for the first time or the fact that the New Hampshire Wildcats like to play at a snail’s pace but if the UConn Huskies didn’t have Kemba Walker, this game could have certainly gone the other way.
For the 4th time in the last five games, Walker had 30 points to help his No. 7/9 Huskies to a 62-55 win over the Wildcats in front of 8,558 at Gampel Pavilion on campus in Storrs, CT.
UConn improves to 6-0 on the season while New Hampshire falls to 4-2.
Walker got almost half of his 30 points at the free throw line where he was 14-of-16. He also had five rebounds, two assists and three steals. Shabazz Napier was the only other Husky in double-digits with 11 points and he also had three steals. Alex Oriakhi, who spent most of the first half on the bench, scored all seven of his points and team-leading 10 rebounds in the second half.
Ferg Myrick paced the Wildcats with 19 points and pulled down eight rebounds. James Valladares was the only other member of the Wildcats in double figures with 12 points. Dane Diliegro led New Hampshire with 10 rebounds and added seven points.
The Huskies never held the lead in the first half and only tied it up twice and that was at 2-2 and 21-21. Neither team shot the ball well in the first half and UConn had 10 blocks out of their 13 in the half.
The biggest lead of the first half for the Wildcats was eight points at 14-6 before the Huskies responded with an 8-2 run to cut the lead to two. New Hampshire built the lead back up to six at 21-15 before a 6-0 run by the Huskies tied it up. Valladares nailed a three with five seconds left but Walker hit a jumper at the buzzer to cut the lead to one at 24-23.
UConn fell behind by six at 34-28 before Oriakhi (six) and Napier (three) keyed a 9-0 run in a span of 2:17 to put the Huskies out front for good. The Huskies never could pull away but over time their defense tightened up and wore down New Hampshire. Their lead hit nine at 57-48 with 3:05 to go and UNH got no closer than five the rest of the way.
This was definitely not a pretty win by no means and let’s be honest, if they UConn didn’t have Kemba being 2010 Kemba, they probably wouldn’t have won this game. For the most part, they were outworked by New Hampshire. And for once this season, they looked like the young, inexperienced team that everyone expected them to be.
You know head coach Jim Calhoun will whip these boys into shape in time for Friday night when UMBC (University of Maryland-Baltimore County) comes to the XL Center. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the game will be televised locally on SNY.
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Notes and musings:
New Hampshire Wildcats @ UConn Huskies 11.30.10 box score
Here are quotes from UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, Shabazz Napier, Kemba Walker, Alex Oriakhi and New Hampshire head coach Bill Herrion.
The starters for UConn were Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Niels Giffey, Alex Oriakhi and Charles Okwandu.
Assistant coach Kevin Ollie made his first appearance on the bench this season after hurting his eye during a freak accident at practice a few weeks ago.
Roscoe Smith blocked a career-high four shots.
Walker now has 180 points in the first six games which is the most ever to start a season at UConn.
Walker also needs two points for 1,000 in his UConn career.
UConn is now 113-4 against non-conference New England teams under Jim Calhoun.
The Huskies shot 38% (19-38) from the floor while the Wildcats shot 22-of-64 (34.4%).
UConn had just seven assists on their 19 made baskets.
New Hampshire was 8-of-16 (50%) from three-point land while the Huskies were 3-of-10 (30%).
The big difference came at the free throw line where the Huskies were 21-of-26 (80.8%) while the Wildcats were just 3-of-6 (50%).
New Hampshire won the battle of the boards 39-38.
The Huskies outscored the Wildcats 28-26 in the paint and 10-2 on the fast break.
UConn had 12 points off of 13 UNH turnovers. The Wildcats had 14 points off of 12 UConn turnovers.
The Huskies bench outscored UNH’s 19-14.
Photo credit: Hartford Courant photo (15)
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