University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Notre Dame
Adrien Keys Senior Night Victory
3/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
February 28, 2009
STORRS, Conn. Senior Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.), playing his final collegiate game in Storrs, scored a season-high 25 points to lead second-ranked Connecticut to a hard-fought 72-65 BIG EAST Conference victory over Notre Dame Saturday afternoon before a sellout crowd of 10,167 at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
The Huskies, who are poised to re-take the number one ranking on Monday, improve to 27-2 on the season and are 15-2 in the conference. The Fighting Irish drop to 16-12, 7-9 in league play.
The Huskies were nursing a 66-65 lead with one minute to play after a jumper by Luke Harangody. Hasheem Thabeet (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) was fouled by Kyle McAlarney with 41 seconds to play, but was unable to shoot the free throws. Senior Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) came off of the bench and made both free throws and added another from the charity stripe 19 seconds later to put the Huskies ahead, 69-65. Adrien followed with one of two from the line and A.J. Price (Amityville, N.Y.) made two with two seconds remaining to ice the game.
Adrien, coming off a game where he failed to make a field goal, dominated the lane all contest. He made 11-of-15 from the field and added nine rebounds. Adrien made his first seven shots from the field in reaching the 20-point mark for the first time since the Fairfield game on December 26. His 11 made field goals represent a career-high.
Thabeet was his usual solid contributor during the contest. He registered his 23rd career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. He also added eight blocked shots in the game. It was the 14th time this season that Thabeet blocked at least five shots in a game.
Freshman Kemba Walker (Bronx, N.Y.) had one his best games of the year offensively with eight points, six rebounds and a game-high six assists with no turnovers in 31 solid minutes of game action. Price finished with 12 points and four assists.
The game was preceded by Senior Night festivities that honored Huskies who were playing their final home game at Connecticut. Adrien, Price and Austrie were joined by walk-ons Johnnie Bird (Fort Bragg, N.C.), John Lindner (Cheshire, Conn.) and Jim Veronick (Durham, Conn.) in being feted by the sellout crowd in their last home game.
The win gave Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun 801 career victories, just two behind Eddie Sutton for sixth all-time on the Division I head coaching win list.
The first half saw the Huskies open up various leads of up to eight points before the Irish rallied behind some solid three-point shooting to get within two, at 32-30 at intermission. The Huskies out-shot Notre Dame in the first half (52 percent to 32 percent), but Notre Dame made six from long-range to stay close.
Notre Dame took their first lead since early in the contest on a three-pointer by Randy Ayers with 18:09 to play. The Huskies responded to take the lead by as much as six (at 49-43) before taking the lead for good on a free throw by Adrien with 6:11 remaining.
The Huskies will conclude the 2008-2009 regular season on Saturday, March 7 when they venture to the Petersen Events Center to play Pittsburgh. Tip-off is set for noon and the game will be nationally-televised by CBS.
