No. 15 Huskies Earn BIG EAST Title as They Top No. 13 Syracuse, 88-70
Boxscore [.html]
Boxscore [.pdf]
 STORRS, Conn. (March 5,
2005) – Junior Denham Brown (Toronto, Ont.) scored a season-high 21
points and Connecticut shot 65 percent from the field in the second half as the
No. 15 Huskies defeated No. 13 Syracuse, 88-70, Saturday afternoon to earn at
a share of their BIG EAST record ninth regular season conference title
before a sellout crowd of 10,167 at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
The win, UConn’s fifth in a row and ninth straight in
conference play, improves the Huskies’ record to 21-6, 13-3 in the BIG EAST. The
Orange slip to 24-6, 11-5 in league play.
The win assures UConn a tie for the league
championship. Connecticut was tied with Syracuse with
eight regular season championships coming into this year.
 The contest
was tied at 37 after a foul-filled first half, but UConn took control early in
the second stanza. Sophomore center Josh Boone (Mt. Airy, Md.) scored
seven points and classmate Charlie Villanueva (Brooklyn, N.Y.) had five
in a 16-6 run to open the second half and the Huskies were not seriously
threatened the rest of the way. The Huskies hot shooting was paced by
Villanueva, Boone and freshman Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.) who combined to
make 12 of 19 shots from the field. Gay finished with 16 points, while Boone
added 10.
Sophomore Marcus Williams (Los Angeles, Calif.), the conference’s leading
assist man, solidly ran the offense, adding 11 points to his game-high 10
assists. The double-double was his fifth of the season, and the 10 assists
marked the seventh time this year he had at least 10 in a game. Williams scored
in double figures for the seventh straight outing. Over those seven games, he is
averaging 13.7 points and nine helpers per contest.
 Villanueva
was immense in the paint for UConn, scoring nine points and grabbing a
career-high tying 14 rebounds. All of Villanueva’s rebounds came off of the
defensive glass. He teamed with Ed Nelson (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and
Hilton Armstrong (Peekskill, N.Y.) into harassing Syracuse’s Hakim Warrick
into just 5-of-19 shooting from the field. As a team, UConn held the Orange to
just 31 percent shooting (23-of-75) and just 2-of-22 from three-point range.
Nelson also had his best game offensively since coming to
Connecticut, scoring nine points in 14 solid minutes. The Huskies were
successful despite committing 19 turnovers. Syracuse was led by Warrick, who had
a game-high 25 points.
 Former
UConn men's soccer coach and current professor Joe Morrone (middle, tan coat)
was honored for his 35 years of service to the University at halftime of
Saturday's game. He is joined by Director of Athletics Jeff Hathaway and many
members of his family, including his wife Betty (to the left).
The Huskies will return to action on
Thursday, March 10, in quarterfinal round action of the 2005 BIG EAST
Championship at Madison Square Garden in New York City when they will play
either at 12:00 noon (if Boston College loses Saturday evening) or at 7:00 p.m.
(if the Eagles win). Their opponent will be determined.
POST GAME QUOTES
 Connecticut
Head Coach Jim Calhoun
"Well, it’s been quite a week for us. When the game ended,
I recollected back to 89-90, our first Big East championship, when we cinched
the championship, and how special it was. This team, coming back from Notre Dame
after a really tough loss, was 4-3 in the league. And then goes on to win nine
straight games (in the league), six of those without our leading scorer. I would
have to say the two most satisfying championships that I’ve been involved with,
clearly were that first one and then this one."
"At the RAC, at the Carrier Dome, at Pittsburgh, 7-1 on the
road… I really couldn’t be prouder of them. They did a terrific, terrific job."
"Today’s game, they weren’t going to be denied of the
chance to hang that banner and get that trophy. That’s what we talked about. We
talked about grabbing that trophy and holding it up at the end. By Monday, we’ll
put it away and get ready for post-season play. I just couldn’t be prouder."
"Charlie was absolutely terrific. He sacrificed, at times, his own scoring to
get 14 rebounds for us."
"I thought we were immense around the basket. There weren’t
many easy shots to be had because so many long arms were up there. So every shot
was a difficult shot in and around the basket."
"The only disappointing part of the game, I thought, was
that, early, the game was called much too close. I thought we allowed a
foul-shooting contest to get in the way of a really good basketball game at
times."
"We were really good. We had the best point guard on the
floor. I don’t think there’s any question about that. And, in my opinion, during
the regular season, he’s been the best point guard in this league. I have no
doubt. I love watching him play. And if any guy were to ever get an award for
passing to guys who get fouled, so he never gets assists on them, he’s the
leader."
"Last time, if you remember, up at Syracuse, they pressed
us. And the press really took us off kilter. We were a little bit better
prepared for it today. We were hoping they would press us so we could try to
take advantage of it."
"I think we’re pretty good right now."
Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim
"I thought the first half we had good movement and good
spacing offensively and we put some points up on the board. In the second half
we had some opportunities. You can’t get empty trips down the court
offensively. We missed a whole lot of free throws. For the game we did a better
job on the boards. That is something we’ve been trying to improve. I thought we
had some shots we could have made that we didn’t covert. Connecticut has played
very well, over the last part of the season they’ve played the best basketball
of any team in our league and I think they are playing as well as the top three
or four teams in the country. You have to play better, we just didn’t play well
enough offensively in the second half to win the game."
On the referees
"It is a physical game, they called some, they could have called some more, it
is just very physical."
On defense against McNamara
"They do a good job, they got him. Anybody that pressures him and keeps guys on
him and jumps out. They’ve done a great job on him, they’ve had very good
defensive players on him. He’s gotten a lot better at penetrating and making
plays, that is one area h e has worked very hard on this year. His first couple
of years he was much more of a shooter, now even though he plays the point for
us he is going by people. And I think he is doing that. He is getting by people,
a couple of times he didn’t make good plays, a couple of times guys didn’t get
the open spots or catch the ball. Our inside guys, at the very best, I can say
they leave a lot to be desired in the way they are playing."
"I think and I’ve told the players, when you play the
regular season to get yourself in the best position you can get in. We’ve won a
couple of games in the league that have gone the other way. We are what we
are. We have some young guys who have gotten some playing time but they still
have a ways to go. I think that is the key for us. I think Terrence (Roberts)
has been better in the starting lineup and it gives us some size. I wish we’ve
had that group together longer. I’m hoping that this week and the tournament
will help us. We are not a great shooting team, but there are some really great
shooting teams that are not even going to the tournament. I think we have a good
chance to be a good tournament team because of our experience. I think this game
was good for us. It’s been an interesting year, we’ve been in every game this Is
the first game this year in the last 10 minutes we didn’t have a good chance to
win. I’m not happy that we’re not playing as well as we can play, but I’ve seen
that turnaround in a matter of days. I told the players we’re in a lot better
position than a whole lot of other people in the country. We’ve earned that. I
think this week it is important for us to go to New Yord and play as well as we
can in New York, then get ready for the only thing that really matters."
Ed Nelson
"For all of those years I was lifting weights it would have
worked for me tonight, but they wouldn’t let me touch or bang. I had to keep
playing that way though, I have a tough time playing non-contact soft basketball
so I just kept my composure, kept banging and played the way I play, if they
called a foul on me, so be it."
"It has been a long road, we’ve had so many ups and down
with A.J. (Price) and Rashad (Anderson) but we have that confidence right now
heading into the BIG EAST and NCAA tournament. It is hard to describe, we just
look into each other’s eyes, and we know what we are going to do, we know we are
one of the best teams."
"We all know about Coach Calhoun, we all knew coming into
Connecticut about his history and about the influence he has on the program. He
works day in and day out for our team and for him to be rewarded like that it is
great. We are just going to keep his streak going. And hopefully what it all
adds up to is that we come out on top."
Charlie Villanueva
On winning regular season title
"It means a lot, because a lot of people were downing us when we were 4-3. The
accomplishments we did are unbelievable. That’s really tough to do. We are
still not done, we still have a lot more things to do."
"It was more of a game by game. Once we won that Syracuse
game at their place, that kind of got things going for us, and knew how good we
were. We’ve just been playing well these past few games."
Rudy Gay
On if the game was frustrating
"At first, yes. It was different playing against somebody like Warrick that gets
those kind of fouls. In the first half and throughout the whole game whenever
somebody sneezed on felt like he got a foul. We played through it, that’s what
makes us the better team. It doesn’t matter if the refs play a different kind of
game, we’re good enough to play though it."
"I feel as though we are the type of team that gets better
as we play…throughout the game and throughout the season as you can see. As the
games go by we get better at our stuff, that’s our game. And we wear the teams
down, we run all practice, we are used to it."
Josh Boone
"We really just wanted to get Coach Calhoun his 701st
win so he could have a little bit of bragging rights over Coach Boeheim which
I’m sure he’ll enjoy now. It was also just really big for us, the regular season
championship was on the line."
"We knew however hard we worked was going determine what we
ended up with. When we started winning games we started becoming more
confident. Then BC started losing a couple and we said 'hey we might have a shot
at this.'" |
