University of Connecticut Athletics
Adrien, Dyson Propel UConn Over Quinnipiac, 82-49
12/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Box Score []
HARTFORD, Conn. (December 16, 2007) - Sophomore guard Jerome Dyson (Rockville, Md.) scored a season-high 23 points and junior forward Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) had his fourth double-double of the season as the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team defeated Quinnipiac University, 82-49, Sunday afternoon at the Hartford Civic Center.
The victory gives the Huskies a 7-2 record, while the Bobcats drop to 4-5 on the season.
Dyson made nine-of-17 shots from the field to pace three teammates in double figure scoring. The game marked the second time this season he has scored at least 20 points, and the eighth time he has accomplished the feat at Connecticut.
Adrien completely dominated the defensive backboards as he yanked down a career-high 13 defensive rebounds on his way to 14 caroms for the game. He added 12 points and three blocked shots in registering his 20th double-double at Connecticut.
Also in double figures were sophomore forward Stanley Robinson (Birmingham, Ala.), who scored 15 points, while sophomore guard Doug Wiggins (East Hartford, Conn.) chipped in with 10 points off of the bench. Robinson has scored at least nine points in eight consecutive games.
The contest marked the return of long-time former Connecticut assistant coach Tom Moore, who is in his first season as the head coach of Quinnipiac.
The Bobcats stayed close early, tying the game at 10 on a three-pointer by Casey Cosgrove with 13:29 to play before intermission. Connecticut responded with a 13-0 run, as Dyson scored four points. The Bobcats could get no closer than seven the rest of the way. The Huskies led 46-24 at intermission, shooting better than 50% (19-of-35, 54%) in a first half for the first time this season.
Connecticut continued its hot shooting in the second half, finishing with a season-best 54% shooting from the field. Connecticut dominated in all facets of the contest, enjoying advantages in points in the paint (38-16), points off turnovers (27-11) and fast beak points (18-4)
Junior point guard A.J. Price (Amityville, N.Y.) had nine assists against just two turnovers, while starting center Hasheem Thabeet (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) had seven points and five rebounds.
Cosgrove led the Bobcats with 15 points.
The Huskies will welcome another former assistant coach back next Saturday afternoon, December 22 when Ted Woodward brings his Maine Black Bears to the Hartford Civic Center for a 1:00 p.m. start. The game will be televised by MyTV9 and SNY.
POSTGAME QUOTES
UConn Head Coach: | Quinnipiac Head Coach:
UConn Players: | | |
Head Coach Jim Calhoun
If we play with some energy, as we did the last 10 minutes of the first half, that’s going to be a step in the right direction. We got the ball up the court and were able to exploit our superior size and athleticism.
I’m leaving here happy. We showed more energy.
We got on fast breaks, and that’s how you beat a zone – just by beating a zone up the court.
Once we got the big lead, it became almost impossible, because not Tommy is caught – does he want to get involved in an up-and-down game against a team that has quicker athletes at this point in time. He’ll get those guys. He’s got some…They’ve got good players. They just need more of them.
I thought we played as hard as we have….We played hard. We stayed with it.
We got a chance to work on our zone because we thought that may be a good way to break better. I thought we did a pretty good job because we were able to trap out of that.
On Jeff Adrien
He had a big blow-up game, because the energy is what’s required. Jeff will work hard enough to make those foul shots. That energy we need.
On A.J. Price
You could hear A.J. really running the team. I like that. And during huddles he did a good job.
On Jerome Dyson
It’s nice to see Jerome explode – after not having a good first half, come back and have a good second half.
Head Coach Tom Moore
In the grand scheme of things, I was very disappointed that, competitively, we didn’t show a little better today, scoreboard-wise. Myself and Coach Calhoun, we’re looking our teams in different ways. We’re looking at big picture things. I was really conflicted coming into the game because I know what counts is the scoreboard, and what the fans are going to see is the scoreboard, but I was trying to get some other lessons, possibly, our of the thing today, while also keeping one eye on the scoreboard.
I would like to have our program to the point where we can play teams like this and play them longer and deeper into the game, and make it a more competitive game.
They hit us with that run at the end of the first half. That was pretty impressive. Equally disappointing by us, we got caught at the end of the half with a couple of tired bodies out there. We were deep into our bench, too, because the foul trouble hurt us a great deal.
I thought we felt a little sorry for ourselves, too. First time on a big stage like this against a very physical team.
We hadn’t really seen anything like this from any of our opponents in terms of size and athleticism, especially at the rim. That was a little bit hard for our kids to handle.
Guard Jerome Dyson
We came out with good energy – the whole team had it.
On Stanley Robinson
If he gets his points, it takes a lot of pressure off the guards to score.
Was this the most fun game of the year?
Yes, it comes with the energy. We came out and overwhelmed them.
On playing against Coach Moore
We knew it would be tough. He knows all our plays and could plan for what we were going to do.
Forward Jeff Adrien
Today was real fun. We’ve been having a lot of fun in practice the last few days and we carried it onto the court.
We worked on moving the ball in practice and that’s what we came out and did.
On playing against Coach Moore
It was very weird, but he’s doing a great job there.
On Stanley Robinson
He’s very important to us. He’s a 3-man, and he does everything.
On powering the ball to the rim today
That was my mentality in practice and I just kept it going to the game.
Guard AJ Price
That’s UConn basketball. That’s how we have to play.
We did a good job on defense and that gave us energy
On Jeff Adrien
He played the way we’re use to seeing him playing. He was rebounding and finishing with authority.
Guard Doug Wiggins
This week of practice really helped us. We’re talking and playing defense. It really helped.
We brought it today. Although it may not have been one of the best teams on our schedule, if we bring that kind of energy we’ll be all right.
