University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Pittsburgh
Fields' Late Heroics Sink Huskies, 76-68
2/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2009
HARTFORD, Conn. - Levance Fields scored all 10 of his points in the game's final 3:12 and DeJuan Blair scored 22 points and had 23 rebounds to lead No. 4 Pittsburgh to a hard fought 76-68 victory over top-ranked Connecticut before a sellout crowd of 16,294 at the XL Center.
The Huskies, who saw their 13-game winning streak end, drop to 24-2 on the season, 12-2 in BIG EAST play. The Panthers improve to 24-2, 11-2 in the conference.
The Huskies had trailed since the 17:46 mark of the first half, but battled to take the lead at 50-49 on a fast break layup by freshman Kemba Walker (Bronx, N.Y.) with 9:50 to play. The Huskies extended their lead to five after junior Stanley Robinson (Birmingham, Ala.) hit two jump shots and senior Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) hit another to put the Huskies in front, 56-51 with 7:31 to play.
Jermaine Dixon made a pair of free throws for the Panthers, and Blair followed with a three-point play to knot the score. Walker hit another layup to put the Huskies back in front, but Dixon answered with a three to re-take the lead for Pittsburgh. Adrien gave the Huskies their last lead on a layup off of a pretty pass from senior A.J. Price (Amityville, N.Y.) but the lead was short lived. Blair made two more free throws to put the Panthers up one, and Hasheem Thabeet (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) made one of two from the line to tie the score for the fifth and final time.
Fields made back-to-back threes on consecutive possessions, and the Huskies got no closer than four the rest of the way.
The Huskies were led by Price, who scored 18 points, 15 in a dazzling first half that kept the Huskies alive when his teammates struggled to score. He hit a dramatic three-pointer at the buzzer that cut what was an eight-point deficit to three at intermission. Price made four three pointers on the night and had eight assists against just one turnover. Adrien struggled mightily in the opening half, being held scoreless. However, he made six of seven field goals after the intermission and finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.
Walker scored 13 points in 24 minutes off of the bench, marking the first time since the St. John's game that he had reached double figures in scoring (a drought of nine games.) Robinson scored eight points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Gavin Edwards (Gilbert, Ariz.) chipped in with six points and three rebounds for the Huskies.
The Huskies were forced to play long stretches of the contest without Thabeet, who was plagued with foul trouble. He played just 23 minutes and was held to just five points, four rebounds and two blocked shots before fouling out with 29 seconds to play.
Blair was terrific all game in registering his 20-20 effort. His work in the lane helped the Panthers become the first team this season to out-rebound the Huskies (48-31.)
The Panther were led in scoring by Sam Young, who scored 25 points. Young made four three-pointers and was eight-of-13 from the field.
The Huskies return to action on Saturday, February 21 when they entertain South Florida at the XL Center. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. and the contest will be televised-locally by MyTV9 and SNY.
