University of Connecticut Athletics
Gordon Paces Men's Basketball Over UMass
12/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HARTFORD, CT (December 30, 2003) -- Ben Gordon scored 34 points on the strength of seven of eight three-point shooting to pace top-ranked Connecticut to a 91-67 victory over Massachusetts before a sellout crowd of 16,294 at the Hartford Civic Center Tuesday evening.
The win, UConn's seventh in succession, improves the Husky record to 10-1 on the campaign. The Minutemen drop to 5-5.
UConn made an immediate statement, scoring the game's first 11 points as Gordon scored the first three and last two points of the run. The Huskies shot the ball well in the first half, 21 of 35 (60%), and going back to the second half in the prior game against Ball State made 46 of 69 shots over 40 minutes, a sizzling 67%. UConn led 55-29 at intermission, as Gordon finished the half with 20 points on seven of 11 shooting and freshman Charlie Villanueva scored 16 of his career-high 19 points in the opening period. The 34 points was the second-highest point total of his career, behind the 37 he scored earlier this year against Nevada. The offense was keyed by senior point guard Taliek Brown, who had nine of his game and season-high 12 assists in the first 20 minutes. Over Brown's last four games he has 35 assists and he has committed just five turnovers over the same span.
Villanueva also shared game-high rebounding honors with teammate Emeka Okafor with 10 apiece. This enabled Villanueva to record the second double-double of his young UConn career. He has scored at least 15 points in four of the five games he has played at UConn. Okafor finished with six points and five blocks. Freshman power forward Josh Boone scored 10 points and yanked down five rebounds.
The Huskies were able to force their will on the shorter Minutemen, outrebounding their opponent 48-27, and converted 18 offensive rebounds into 27 second chance points.
Jeff Viggiano scored a career-high 22 points for UMass.
The Huskies take to the road for the first time this season when they venture to Houston, Texas to play Rice on Friday, January 2. Tip-off is set for 8:00 p.m. and the game will be televised locally by Fox Sports New York at 8:00 p.m. and by NESN on a tape-delayed basis at 9:00 p.m.
POST GAME QUOTES
UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun
I thought we played a terrific, terrific first half. I thought we jumped on UMass the way we would like to. I was a little nervous that they would run, as they did in the second half, their offense to try to slow the game down, but we worked really hard on pressing them. And as long as we were scoring, which we did early, we were able to get into our press and the tempo of the game was never the same. Once we got up 40 points, 35 points, obviously we couldn’t press anymore. It just wouldn’t be the thing to do.
I told the kids “Forget the points. You played to a really dominating performance.”
I thought we were penalized because we were bigger, stronger and better….I want our kids to use the 40 minutes to get better, and I didn’t think we were able to do that in the second half because I thought we were penalized….
On Villanueva
He’s still sloppy and lazy about a lot of things, but he’s got things that he can do. What we want him to do is catch the ball at the top of the key and drive…Maybe he has to be stronger protecting the ball – I don’t know that, but I think he makes a terrific weapon at 6-10 to be able to drive from the top of the key.
On the press
I think it’s a good weapon for us….We’re very mobile and big and can, obviously, bring people off the bench that can play. It begs for itself, in certain games. Texas Tech pressed them also, so we had that in the bonnet. Last year, we never got into the press because we couldn’t make a shot, and that wasn’t going to happen tonight. We were going to press them on everything we possibly could early.
On Ben Gordon
He can do anything he wants….He can get his shot off. He’s like Ray – he can get his shot every time….We’ve had some guys that were terrific before. He’s moving himself into that category.
Ben Gordon
On how he prepares for a game
I usually just come out the day before and before the game and just get the shots up that I’m going to take in the game…that way I get my rhythm
On what happens to Emeka when Ben has a big night
We’ve had games where I’m hot and he’s still doing his thing. Tonight him getting in early foul trouble that through his rhythm off. When he got back in the second half, I think it was in the back of his mind that he wanted to get himself going and he was out of rhythm.
On if this is the best roll he’s been on
Probably. I have been shooting really well lately. I’ve been spending extra time after practice getting shots off. I’m going to try to continue to do it.
How aware are you of your impact on the other team’s morale
You can see it on their faces, when you make a shot like that, you come back and you play tough defense. You can see how demoralizing it is for other teams.
On next few games
This next stretch is going to be pretty tough. We are going to be playing more games more often away games. We’ll just go into it like this, with a lot of confidence.
On playing away games
It’s pretty fun, actually.
Charlie Villanueva
In the first half someone had to step up and take up for what Emeka does, so I just came in and played my game.
Ben is a fantastic player. He is a great offensive player, as well as a defensive player. He is shooting the ball great so we’re going to keep giving it to him.
The more games I get under my belt the more comfortable I feel. I feel really comfortable right now, but I’m just going to keep working hard. I’m never satisfied. So I’m trying to make it a habit. I think I need to work on everything …strength …defense…everything.
I know exactly what coach wants me to do. I accept my role. We’ve got great players, we’ve got a lot of scorers on our team. I’ve got to do other things to help out.
That is one thing about it. We have got a lot of great scorers on this team. When one guy is off, the other guy is going to hurt you. So that’s what I like about it.
I’m back in game shape. You just run the floor and try to get buckets.
Taliek Brown
On the press
The press worked a lot for us last year when we came back and got that lead. That’s how we attacked the game and got the game going a little. We scored easy baskets We’ve been working real hard on it. We did it last year against UMass and we got a lot of steals and easy baskets.
On the running game
I just like the flow of the game. I try to run every single time. I try not to even get into any plays...just try to run every game.
On starting to mesh
I think everyone is on the same page, same rhythm, we’re running, everyone is playing defensive, everyone is focused. We know what we need to do and we just have one goal and that is to win everything.
On if UMass was tired
You can tell when they start giving up. We just start putting them away. You can just tell how the intensity of the game drops and they start giving up.
On assists (12)
It was easy really, everyone was getting open and Ben was knocking every shot down. We were just creating and getting easy baskets.
UMass Coach Steve Lappas
Obviously, they are a really, really good team. I told Jim before the game I thought this is the most talented team he’s ever had because I don’t think he’s ever had that many big guys at one time. Perimeter guys he’s had and Ben Gordon is every bit as good as anyone he’s ever had. In the game he played tonight, I don’t think he got a whole lot of easy looks. He made tough shots and I think that flustered our guys a little bit because they were all over him. We started to play little too quick and that was not what we wanted to do. In the 2nd half we played a little calmer. We moved the ball better and hopefully we learned something going from one half to the next.
What do you want your guys to feel?
They saw that when they make passes, move the ball, and play together that things will happen. And what happens is when you play better offensively, that keeps you in defensively…I want them to feel like if we had just done what we were supposed to do from the beginning, it would have been a better game.
Do you want to see the series continue?
Yes, sure. Why not? Why wouldn’t I because we lost? If you get rid of a series every time you lose a game, what is that? That’s ridiculous. We have all freshmen. We are trying to build something. We’re not running away. We want to play Connecticut. Connecticut is a great program. Jim and I are good friends. I think that’s a stupid question to tell you the truth. Anybody who knows me for 16 years knows I don’t lose a game and run away.
Can you compare this UConn team to the Ray Allen and Donyell Marshall teams?
These guys are so much bigger and physical guys inside. Then you want to start compare Ray Allen and Ben Gordon, that’s splitting hairs. They’re like a dinosaur, this team. Who’s got two junior All-Americans nowadays? It’s like they’re extinct. You don’t even see that anymore. It’s like tyrannosaurus rex and brontosaurus. And they’re not even coming back either. Two junior All-Americans, that’s unbelievable.
On the play of Rashaun Freeman
It was a learning experience for him. He’s going to be a really good player. I think he showed that, but he’s going against some tough guys. Emeka Okafor is maybe the best inside defender in the country. So I think the kid handled himself well. We got some fouls that hurt. So he had to sit out. And we didn’t have Gabe (Lee) for the whole game for the most part.
On Jeff Viggiano
I think Jeff did a great job. I’m happy for him because he had struggled earlier in the year and he seems to be really finding himself now which happens to a lot of sophomores. A lot of kids in their sophomore year take a step back before they take that next step forward. He took a step back for the first 7 games and then when I started bringing him in off the bench, I started to see some real life. And then today I decided to start him – he’s a Connecticut kid. I know it was a thrill for him to start today. So, he did a great job.
