University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn Belts Ballers in Final Exhibition Contest
11/13/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HARTFORD, CT (November 13) -- Junior Emeka Okafor (Houston, TX) scored twenty second-half points, and Freshman Josh Boone was one blocked shot away from a triple-double, finishing (Mt. Airy, MD) with 12 points and 15 rebounds as the University of Connecticut men's basketball team routed the Beltway Ballers, 102-44, in the front of 15, 517 at the Hartford Civic Center. The contest was the Huskies' last exhibition tune-up of the season.
The Huskies stormed out of the gate in this contest and took control immediately, jumping out to a 20-3 lead with 14:54 remaining in the first half. Ben Gordon (Mt. Vernon, NY) made the first four shots he took, and finished the first half with 13 points. Sophomore wing Denham Brown (Toronto, Ontario) also finished the first half with a bakers' dozen, helping UConn to a 50-24 halftime edge.
Connecticut would not take its foot off the gas pedal in the second half, as Okafor went 9-of-10 from the field in the second stanza, and Boone started the second half with three straight blocked shots.
UConn outscored the Ballers 49-to-20 in the second session, thanks to a 68.8% shooting clip, and outstanding work on the boards, as UConn out rebounded the Ballers 30-to-14.
Freshman Marcus Williams (Los Angeles, CA) dished out a game-high 15 assists and turned the ball over only twice.
Andre Poole led the Ballers with 11 points.
UConn will begin the regular season on Monday, November 19th when they take on the Yale Bulldogs in Preseason NIT action at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs. Game time is slated for 7:00 p.m. and will be televised nationally by espn2.
POSTGAME QUOTES
UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun
I think it’s really important that we continue to try to use, as much as we can, of the open court. Marcus Williams was pretty good moving the basketball. I thought, the one thing we lacked, at times, was energy, and the guy who provides that was the guy with the turf toe. And that’s what we probably lacked at times. Denham had it, no question about that. Josh Boone had it, no doubt about that. I don’t think the rest of us really had the energy that I would like to see. And once again, they read the store, they feel like they’re superior to the other team, but I would rather have them with that kind of energy. One thing Taliek does is provide the energy for us.
On Josh Boone
Granted, he had mismatches because they didn’t have a lot of size, but with all that set, he still has good court instincts and he still understands how to play, which is exceptionally important. It’s one of those things you can’t teach. Josh, when he throws an outlet pass, looks over the floor – we threw three passes the first half that led to charges because we didn’t notice that there was someone in a different color jersey standing right behind the guy who was going to catch the ball. Josh was victimized by that. He rolls very well, in the sense that he understands rolling for position. We were trying to get him ready for Yale. They won’t have two 6’10” kids up front as we do. Someone is going to have to play someone 6’6”. We were trying to prepare ourselves the best we can for our first game of the season. So some of that was really good to get them out on the floor and play people that put the ball down on the deck and get us some defensive slides.
On Denham Brown
I thought Denham gave us great energy.
On Emeka Okafor
In the second half we told Emeka, “Despite your seeming lack of a desire to score, we’re actually going to make you score, because we’re going to keep getting you the ball.” And he put up whatever he put up in the second half. We’ve got to get him the ball earlier. Even with 9 minutes, he can’t take one shot. He’s just too good. We’ve got to get him the ball, and secondly, he has to demand it. And he has to get more rebounds than what he’s getting. He’s the nation’s fourth leading rebounder and, I think, in two exhibition games he has somewhere around 10. In two games he hasn’t got what he averaged last year. I don’t care about any other factors, but I do care about that, though. I think it’s important that he starts rebounding better.
Emeka Okafor
What did you eat at halftime that got you going?
A whole lot of Coach Calhoun…Coach came in during halftime and said, ‘we need to get Emeka the ball.’
On Josh Boone
He’s just getting better and better in practice. You can see his progress. He goes after the boards. He blocks shots. He puts the ball in the bucket when he needs to.
Working with him on blocking shots?
That’s him. That’s all him. He just has that natural talent.
On the team’s depth
Everyone came in and contributed in some way. Ryan Thompson came in and shot the three and played some great defense. Marcus grabbed rebounds. Josh blocked shots and grabbed rebounds. Shamon came in and played great defense. The list goes on and on.
Josh Boone
I was just trying to do more of what I did in the first game, running blocked shots and rebounding the ball.
We definitely improved from last game, but we still need to work on our defense and we still had a lull at the beginning of the second half that we need to work on. If we can just come out every game and every half ready to play I think we’ll be alright.
On his blocks
It is a lot of timing, knowing when to jump, knowing when to put your hands up and also knowing what shots to block...some shots you are not going to be able to block, you just have to stand there and put your hands up…others you can get to and you need to realize when the time is right. I think a lot of the blocks game off of help defense and that’s what coach has been teaching us. You have to help then you have to rotate back. I think that also credits my teammates because they are doing what they need to do, they are in the right spots so I can get to the ball to block it.
On Emeka Okafor’s blocking
I’m learning a lot from him, watching him in practice and trying to emulate everything he does as far as rebounding and blocked shots. He is one of the few people in country who block shots more on timing….he is also a great shot blocker on the ball as opposed to coming on help side defense, and that is what I’m trying to get better at as well.
It really helps (to play with Emeka Okafor)….I have never played with the best shot-blocker in the country before….so it takes a lot of pressure off.
Ben Gordon
On the play of Marcus Williams
He is a really good passer, he has a knack for finding the open man. He finds everybody in the spots where they can score. He helps us a lot.
We are ready to get the season started. We feel that we get better with every game, so we are looking forward to it.
We tried to keep our focus, we made some lackadaisical passing, but I felt that overall we did a good job of pretty much sticking to what we wanted to do.
Denham Brown
On working consistently all preseason long
Playing in the summer has really helped my confidence. It got me motivated to help this team any
way I can. Playing with guys like Nash, helped me with what it takes to get to the next level.
Playing with more energy?
Yes, I’m playing a lot harder. I just keep working, and hopefully, as you see today, it goes from practice into the games.
-- we do a whole drill on fast breaks
Marcus Williams
I was trying to get everyone involved.
Emphasis on pushing the ball or was it what they gave you?
It was more about pushing the ball, look ahead, and get everyone involved. That’s what we do in practice.
