Huskies Beat Gonzaga To Take Maui Title
On Denham Brown's Last Second Bucket

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LAHAINA, Hawaii (November 23, 2005)— Senior Denham Brown hit a hook shot with 1.1  seconds left in the game to give the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team a 65-63 victory over Gonzaga University Wednesday night in the championship game of the 2005 EA Sports Maui Invitational.

With the win, UConn improves to 4-0 on the season and captures the school’s first in-season neutral site tournament title since 1956, when the Huskies won the Orange Bowl Classic.

Gonzaga’s J.P. Batista hit a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining to tie the score at 63-63. UConn then inbounded the ball and Brown received it just beyond midcourt. He dribbled to the left baseline and hit the hook shot over two Gonzaga defenders to put UConn in front. The Bulldogs missed a desperation heave at the buzzer.

UConn held an eight-point second half lead, but the Bulldogs chipped away. Freshman Jeff Adrien scored on a dunk and free throw with 7:19 to play to give the Huskies a 58-50 lead. The 'Zags responded with a pair of buckets and continued to chip away into the final minutes. UConn still led by six, 62-56, with 3:30 to play, but Gonzaga outscored the Huskies 7-1 over the next 3:24 to tie the score and set up Brown's heroics.

Senior Rashad Anderson led the Huskies on the night with 14 points. Freshman Jeff Adrien scored 11 points and sophomore Rudy Gay had ten. Brown finished the night with nine points.

The Huskies led 33-31 at the half thanks to the hot-shooting of Anderson. He hit for 13 points in the stanza, including 3-of-4 from three-point range. UConn shot 52.2% for the half and held the Bulldogs to 38.9% in the first. The half featured eight lead changes and neither team led by more than four points during the first half of play. Gonzaga led by a score of 10-6 through the first four minutes, but Anderson hit a three followed by a two to give the Huskies their first lead at 11-10. The UConn lead was as big as four on six different occasions, but the ‘Zags continually answered each deficit with a bucket of their own.

UConn returns to action Tuesday, November 29 with a 7:00 p.m. contest against the Cadets of Army at the Hartford Civic Center.