University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies Defeat Sacred Heart, 89-46, To Win Sixth Straight
11/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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STORRS, CONN. (November 29, 2006) – Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) made a career-high four three-pointers and freshman guard Doug Wiggins (East Hartford, Conn.) scored his career-high to pace a balanced offensive attack as Connecticut easily defeated state rival Sacred Heart, 89-46, Wednesday evening before a sellout crowd of 10,167 at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
The win, Connecticut’s 25th in a row at home, improved their record on the season to 6-0. The Pioneers drop to 2-4.
Connecticut shot at least 50 percent for the fifth straight game as nine Huskies scored at least six points. Austrie and Wiggins each scored 12 points off of the UConn bench. Austrie was four of six from long-range while Wiggins eclipsed the 11 points he had scored in Connecticut’s first five games on six-of-10 shooting. He also had a game-high and a career-high five assists. Also in double figures were starting backcourt mates Jerome Dyson (Rockville, Md.) and A.J. Price (Amityville, N.Y.), who each tallied 11 points.
A trio of Huskies scored eight points; Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.), Hasheem Thabeet (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) and Stanley Robinson (Birmingham, Ala.) Adrien yanked down a game-best eight rebounds.
The Huskies were extremely efficient in the victory. They shot at least 50 percent from the field in both halves, and made 16-of-18 free throws, a drastic improvement from the 64 percent marksmanship they entered the contest shooting.
Connecticut excelled on the defensive end of the court as well, limiting the Pioneers to just 30 percent shooting from the field and forcing 20 turnovers. Dyson (four steals) was the catalyst in harassing Sacred Heart’s leading scorer Luke Granato into just a two-for-nine night from the field. The Huskies continued their streak of not allowing one opponent this season to shoot better than 36 percent from the field.
The Huskies, who have led the nation in blocked shots in each of the past five seasons, swatted 11 Sacred Heart offerings, led by Adrien’s three.
Ryan Litke made three three-pointers to lead the Pioneers with nine points.
The Huskies will try and win their seventh game in row to start the season on Sunday, December 3. Texas Southern will be the opponent at Gampel Pavilion, and tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. The game will not be televised.
POSTGAME QUOTES
UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun
I think the one thing that’s starting to develop as a constant six games in is defense. I think that’s what the name of the game was.
We watched tape of Dave’s team, and they ran up and down very comfortably with Carolina – five point game at halftime, put 81 on the board. We watched them put 90 points up on Albany, and once again ran up and down the court wonderfully and made threes. But I thought our kids did a great job of extending out to them.
I remember playing them two years ago. We had a tough time with matchups. Tonight we didn’t have a problem with matchups because we have a lot of guards. We went to a three-guard line-up and I think that changed the game defensively and offensively.
We had to play small. It’s the smallest team we’ve played.
What it means for the future is, if we have to go out and play on the perimeter, we can. And I don’t care who we’re playing against. We may not be able to hold them to 30 percent, but we have a pretty good history of holding a lot of people in that range.
We’re running better….When we get out on steals and get out on blocked shots, and so on, I thought we ran very well.
Overall, it was a good team performance.
How good are we going to be? We have no idea. We have not yet gone against the type of quality opponents we’re going to go against 19 times.
UConn Sophomore AJ Price
We’ve been coming out in the second half and putting the pedal all the way to the floor and trying to put teams away early in the second half.
On the defensive effort tonight
From the beginning of the game, we took them out of everything they wanted to do. And it started on the perimeter with me and Jerome. And when Doug came in and Craig, it didn’t let up, it continued.
What does it mean for all the point guards to contribute?
It means a lot because we know when one of us goes out it’s not a let down. The next guy coming in is going to continue to do the same thing – push the ball, make open shots, and make all the right passes. I think as long as we get that from all three of us, the four guards really, we’ll be fine.
On having fun out there
I think it started last game for the first time. We were having fun, getting out and running, and a lot of different people were scoring. And when that happens, it makes the game a lot more fun for everybody.
UConn Sophomore Craig Austrie
I think we’re one of the quickest teams in the country, and we just have to utilize that to our full potential. I feel like we’re getting to that. We’re working hard in practice. We’re still not there yet, but we’re getting to where we want to be.
Does the team’s quickness help you cheat a little on defense?
We can cheat because we have Hasheem back there in case we get a back cut. Having Hasheem really helps our defense a lot.
On bouncing back from his last game
I just wanted to put that game behind me. I don’t think I’ve ever turned the ball over five times in my life.
On shooting
It’s being more relaxed. And I’m in the gym all the time getting shots, so I just need it to carry over into the game and give me a little more confidence. Making four threes really gave me the confidence I needed.
UConn Freshman Doug Wiggins
On playing in a three guard offense
I like it. We’re out there really playing defense and the intensity is picking up. The tempo is very high when there are three guards out there.
Team is getting better on the break
We’re running a lot better than we were at the beginning of the season. Guys are doing a better job getting out.
UConn Freshman Jerome Dyson
On team’s effort, especially seeing players diving for balls with a 40-point lead
Nobody’s quitting. That’s the good part. Everybody’s working hard right until the end of the game. I think that’s a good sign.
On balance in team scoring
We’re distributing the ball a lot. It’s nice. Not one person is outscoring anybody. We had a lot of people in double-figures tonight.
On the team’s defensive effort
We had a lot of steals. Everybody was working a lot harder. They were trying to get a lot of back cuts on us. We just pressured the ball real well when they were trying to get the back cuts and that helped out a lot.
Sacred Heart Head Coach Dave Bike
We were trying to hold the ball a little bit, try to get some penetration, kick-outs and stuff like that, but we didn’t do it. Sometimes when you play it’s your own fault and sometimes when you play it’s the other team’s fault. I’m going to blame them for as bad as we played.
We had a pretty good game against Carolina. We had more of a flow. Today we weren’t allowed to do that. We didn’t stop either one of them….We looked like a much better team against Carolina than we did against UConn. Partly we’re to blame, but they had a big hand in that.
Overall, they came at us offensively, they came at us defensively. We were overmatched.
