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UConn Suffers First BIG EAST Loss As Rutgers Runs Away Late
(boxscore) Piscataway, NJ (January 30, 2002) – For the first
time this season, the University of
Connecticut men’s basketball team was handed a defeat by a BIG EAST opponent
as Rutgers used a 14-2 run over the final three minutes and fifty seconds of the
game to upset the 17th-ranked Huskies, 61-53, Wednesday at the Louis Brown
Athletic Center in Piscataway, NJ.
The loss snapped UConn’s six-game win streak and sent the Huskies to a 14-4
record
and 6-1 in BIG EAST play. Connecticut had come into the game as the last team
standing in the league without a conference loss. Rutgers, who defeated
Connecticut
for the first time in nine attempts since joining the league in 1995-96,
improved to
13-7 and evened its conference record at 4-4.
The first half was a seesaw affair with the lead changing hands on a dozen
occasions
and the game being tied seven times. Emeka Okafor (Fr., Houston, TX) had five
blocks by the break, two of which came in the first minute. However, Rutgers
went on a 6-0 run late before Taliek Brown (So., Queens, NY) hit a lay up to draw UConn to
within three as it stood 28-25 at intermission. Connecticut’s first half point
total
marked a season low and was due in part to ten turnovers. Meanwhile, Rutgers
turned the ball over only four times and dictated the tempo allowing the Huskies
just four points on fast breaks.
The story for much of the second half was more of the same with Connecticut
holding to a 51-47 advantage, its largest lead, before Rutgers’ Jerome Coleman
triggered the run in which he scored 12 of his career high 26 points.
Caron Butler (So, Racine, WI) led the Huskies with 20 points, while Johnnie
Selvie (Sr., Flint, MI) had his second double-double of the season with 14
points and 11
rebounds. Okafor had nine blocked shots for the second straight game and also
had
11 boards.
Neither team managed to shoot the ball well with Rutgers hitting on 39 percent
of its
shots (22 of 56). UConn, who came in hitting on 50 percent or higher in eight of
its
last 11 games, was limited to 36 percent from the field (21 of 58).
Up next, Connecticut heads south for a showdown of the top two teams in the BIG
EAST East Division, taking on Miami on Saturday, February 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the
Miami Arena. The Huskies beat the Hurricanes, 76-75, at Gampel Pavilion on
January
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