Huskies Get By Central Florida In First Round of NCAA Championship

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WORCESTER, Mass. (March 18) --- Sophomore forward Charlie Villanueva (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored 22 points and led four Huskies in double figures as the University of Connecticut posted a 77-71 victory over Central Florida in the first round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship on Friday at the DCU Center in Worcester.

UConn advances to the second round of the tournament and will meet North Carolina State on Sunday. The Wolfpack were a 75-63 winner over UNC Charlotte in another first round game on Friday in Worcester. North Carolina State will enter that game with a 20-13 record. Connecticut is 23-7 on the season.

The Huskies now have a 23-2 record in first and second round games under head coach Jim Calhoun and are 13-0 in first round play. The Huskies, who won the national title in both 1999 and 2004, have a 19-3 record in the last six NCAA tournaments.

Freshman Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.) (to the left) scored 17 points while junior Denham Brown (Toronto, Ont.) had 11 points and sophomore Josh Boone (Mt Airy, Md.) had 10 points. Brown led the Huskies in rebounding with eight boards.

Connecticut started the game quickly and held a 15-5 lead with 14:32 left to go as Villanueva scored five of UConn’s first 15. The Knights then cut the lead to four points, 17-13, as they went on a 8-2 mini-run. That was as close as they would be for the rest of the first half as UConn opened up a lead in the first half as big as 17 points – 42-26 in the closing moment on a Villanueva basket. The Huskies eventually led by 16 at halftime – 47-31.

Central Florida did not go away in the second half and stayed with the Huskies the whole way. Central Florida cut the lead to under double digits with 4:44 to play on a basket by Kinglsey Edwards to make it 68-60 Huskies. UConn got the lead back to 10 – 72-62 – on a Villanueva basket with 2:10 to go.

Williams made a pair of free throws for UConn with 1:45 to play that made it 74-65 UC but Central Florida then scored four of the game’s next five points to cut the lead to four with 11 seconds to play – the closest the Knights could get.

Central Florida had three players in double figures – led by Gary Johnson with 29 points, including seven three-point field goals. Will Baranowsky added 15 points for Central Florida while Edwards had 10.