UConn Edged by Providence on Senior Night

Boxscore (.pdf)
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STORRS, CT (March 5, 2003) -- Ryan Gomes scored 26 points to lead Providence College to a 76-70 victory over Connecticut, Wednesday night, before a sellout crowd of 10,167 at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.

The loss drops the UConn record to 18-8, 9-6 in the BIG EAST Conference. The Friars improve to 14-12, 7-8 in league play.

Providence scored the opening basket of the game and held the lead throughout the opening half, leading by as many as 11 in the opening stanza, at 32-21. Gomes proved difficult to handle for the Huskies, scoring 16 points before intermission. Connecticut closed the half on an 11-2 run over the final 3:47 to get within two, 34-32, at halftime.

The Huskies took their first lead of the game with 17:55 to play on a jumper by Marcus White (Chicago, IL). After Providence’s Rob Sanders made one of two free throws, Denham Brown (Toronto, ON) gave the Huskies their final lead of the game at 37-36 on a lay up. UConn was able to tie the score at 53 on two free throws by Emeka Okafor (Houston, TX) with 9:14 to play. The Friars’ Tuukka Kotti and Donnie McGrath hit decisive three-pointers late in the contest to seal the victory for Providence.

Okafor played splendidly for the Huskies, netting a career BIG EAST high in points with 24 and yanking down a game-high 15 rebounds in the process. Okafor hit on 10 of 15 shots from the field. Ben Gordon (Mt. Vernon, NY) added 21 for UConn. White came off the bench to score eight points and pull down seven rebounds.

The Friars were able to take advantage of 17 Connecticut turnovers, converting those miscues into 17 points. Providence was able to stifle the Connecticut transition game, limiting the Huskies to just three fast break points.

Kotti scored 13 for Providence, while Sheiku Kabba chipped in with 10 points. Center Marcus Douthit scored seven points, had eight rebounds and a blocked a career-high nine shots.

The Huskies will conclude the 2002-2003 regular season on Saturday, March 8, when they travel to Chestnut Hill, MA to take on Boston College. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally by espn.

Post-Game Quotes

UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun

First, I would like to congratulate Providence. I thought Timmy did a terrific job. We had them by 28 down at Providence – they’ve made some adjustments since then, personnel wise.

Providence showed some toughness tonight of getting through their offense….In turn, we battled on the boards, we got performance from Emeka in the second half – he was awful in the first half, he was wonderful in the second half. Marcus White continues to give us great effort. Rashad Anderson missed 6 threes but gave us great effort.

I don’t know what better atmosphere you would want, better setup, with the came coming up against BC on Saturday and then the Big East Tournament and NCAA implications on the line, that you would need much more motivation.

We didn’t do a good job…Our kids didn’t respond in the kind of game that needs responding. And the buck stops here. There’s no reason for our kids not to play with a lot more energy and enthusiasm and in game 26 look like it’s the first time they’ve ever seen a 2-3 zone. They saw that exact same 2-3 zone a very short time ago, about 2 ½ weeks ago. So we don’t have any excuses, it was just a bad loss for us. A bad loss not because it was Providence, I’m not saying that. It was a bad loss in how we performed. We did not perform with energy, enthusiasm or any of the kind of things that I would like to see.

I’ll be very honest with you and I’ll say it right out: The University of Connecticut basketball teams over the years, coming down the stretch runs, we’ve lost, but we’ve been an awfully tough out. We were not a tough out tonight, in a big game. And that was a big game. That game could have set up an awful lot of other circumstances for us.

I couldn’t be more disappointed with the energy and effort that our kids displayed, which eventually gets back to the coaching staff. I even said to my staff, “Did I come back too quick?” Because I couldn’t instill in them just how much fun it is to play in these games. Those championships aren’t hanging up there by accident or luck.

I’m expressing to you how disappointed I am in our staff, starting with myself most importantly, and our team’s response to what we asked them to do.

On Gordon

Ben had a lot of garbage points and threw the ball away seven bad times. He couldn’t pick seven worse times. He’s a terrific basketball player, one of the best players in this league, but he had a awful game. He had just an awful game of decision-making. Every one of those seven turnovers just happened to be back-breakers for us. Certainly he didn’t want to do that, but he did.

On Douthit

Douthit was terrific. I give him a great deal of credit, blocking shots – he really took the middle away. Of course after he blocked the first 3 or 4 layups we might have pulled up for midrange jump shots, but we really weren’t in tune tonight.

He was a major factor tonight. A major, major factor. We’d split the zone and he was there waiting for us.

On Gomes

Ryan Gomes continues to be one of the top ten players in the league.

UConn Player Quotes

Emeka Okafor

When it came down to crunch time we made some decisions that we shouldn’t have made. We just have to erase this game from memory. Just learn from what we did bad and what we did wrong.

On NCAA Tournament: The situation hasn’t changed as far as what we need to do…which is win. We just have to come in and win against Boston College and win in the BIG East Tournament. Now it is just more imperative that we actually do that, we put ourselves in a situation where we have to end the season strong.

Providence came out, they played great, they won the game. They did what they needed to do and we didn’t.

Going into BC: We just have to come in to win. We have to come in ready to play, come in with a positive attitude, just know that we are a good team, that we are strong, that we are defending champions and play that way.

We won’t have as much momentum as we would have liked. Over the next few days we will get our minds right and get our confidence back. We are going to come out strong and pull it off. We will believe in ourselves, have confidence in our abilities and believe we can do what we put our minds to.

On last loss vs. BC: We just have to make sure that doesn’t happen Saturday.

Ben Gordon

We got out to a real bad start. We turned the ball over 5 of our first 7 possessions. Instead of picking up the slack and turning the game around and starting to play better, we kind of continued to play that way the entire game. Every time we had a chance, we just kind of through it away or did something foolish. We kept hurting ourselves.

Was Providence different tonight?

They had the same players. The played the same defense. We just gave it a real poor effort out there, mentally and physically.

It was the vibe the whole game, everybody wasn't really pumped up. We were just kind of going through the motions. Physically, we gave it the effort but a lot of things were mental mistakes.

Did this game put you back on " the bubble" if you don't win your next game?

We had a real good chance to set things up the last couple of games in our favor, but we just through this game away. This could really hurt us down the stretch. Even if we do win, you never know what can happen in the future so this game could really hurt us.

Did you always think you had a chance to win?

The last 6 minutes it was still a tight game. But every time we need to make that one simple play, a couple of times I through it away. We just couldn't get over the hump.

What did Coach say after the game?

The entire coaching staff was just disappointed in how we played, especially considering the high stakes of the game and how it could affect us down the road. He was just real disappointed in our effort and how we played tonight.

Did you take the Pittsburgh loss hard? Did it linger?

To walk away with a loss, yeah, we were disappointed. But I don't think that had much of an effect on tonight's performance. We just came in not ready to play. I don't know what I can blame it on. It was a collective thing.

Tony Robertson

We weren't supposed to play like that tonight.

On it being his Senior Night

I didn't want to go out like that. I wanted to go out (of the game) with 7 minutes left, after a good performance, get a standing "O". But not tonight.

We turned the ball over 5 of the first 7 times – you can't beat too many people when you're playing like that.

Were you conscious that it was your last game once the game started?

I knew it in the beginning. But I didn't have time to think about that this was my last game, I was jus6t trying to get us back in the game.

Marcus White

We just didn't pick it up like we should have. They were a great team tonight.

What was the locker room like after the game?

Silence. A whole lot of silence.

Did Coach say anything after the game?

He said a lot, but the gist of it was that we just need to pick it up and start playing UConn basketball. It's a winning program traditionally, and we're supposed to win. It's just that simple, we're supposed to win. We're supposed to win tough games, easy games. We're supposed to just win.

We were battling back the whole way, like the first half. And they stuck with it. I give them a whole lot of credit, they stuck with it. And they picked it up when we picked it up and tried to make our comeback. And when we came out at halftime, the ball didn't bounce our way a couple of times, we had a couple more turnovers than we would have liked, and we came out with the loss.

Providence Player Marcus Douthit

I playing pretty hard, guys on my team have been helping me because teams have been coming at me even harder now. My shot blocking abilities have been getting better. Our team has been playing good hard defense.

Okafor is a great shot blocker. Everybody in the country talks about him as a big shot blocker. I don’t know if I’m as good as him, but if I’m not, I’m right there with him.

I’m just happy that my teammates help me out a lot because everybody pushes them to the sideline or to the middle and then they shy them towards me and I’m there to block the shots.

I think it is a great win for the team. It gives us a lot of confidence. Everybody knows now in their heads that we are a good team because we beat UConn on their home court.

Providence Head Coach Tim Welsh

I thought we did an unbelievable job at the defensive end of the floor. Our offensive execution started our defense. UConn turns bad shots into runouts, and they only had 3 fast break points tonight…and I consider them the best fast-breaking team in the country that I’ve seen this year…they go end-to-end quicker than anybody. They really took the ball to us in Providence. We’ve been concentrating the last few days in practice getting back on defense, and offensive execution.

We didn’t want to rush shots, we didn’t want their crowd to get into it. Our guys got out and contested the 3pt shooters. It is one thing to make it, but it is another thing to be open. They were wide-open in Providence and tonight we just extended our zone which puts a lot of pressure on the backside of our zone.

Our guys played as a team tonight on both ends of the floor. They helped each other.