Gay, Anderson Lead No. 3 Huskies Over UMass

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HARTFORD, Conn. (Dec. 8, 2005) - Sophomore Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.) scored 17 points and had nine rebounds to lead the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team to a 78-60 win over Massachusetts on Thursday night before a sold out crowd of 16,294 at the Hartford Civic Center. Third-ranked Connecticut improves to 7-0 on the season while the Minutemen fall to 2-3 on the year. UConn is 7-0 for the sixth time in Jim Calhoun’s 20-year tenure at the school.

Gay started slowly, scoring four points in the opening twenty minutes, but took over the contest with three huge plays midway through the second half.  With the Huskies nursing a 59-47 lead, Gay soared high and hit a floating jumper with 10:49 to play increasing the Husky lead to 14.  On the next UConn possession, he hit a long three-pointer, and Gay then had a steal and drove for a spectacular windmill dunk to put the Huskies ahead 66-47, and UConn had secured the win.

Junior Josh Boone (Mt. Airy, Md.) recorded his third double-double of the season, and his second consecutive, as he scored 13 points and he yanked down a game-high 10 rebounds. Boone recorded all his points and rebounds in the second half, after a three-minute, two-foul first half.  Senior Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, Fla.) came off the bench to score 15 points – 12 of which were scored in the first half. Anderson scored nine of his points on three-point field goals.  Anderson and senior forward Ed Nelson (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) were the key offensive sparks for the Huskies before intermission, combining for 20 of the 41 UConn points.  The Huskies enjoyed a 41-32 lead at the break.

Senior guard Denham Brown (Toronto, Ont.) had nine points, while freshman point guard Rob Garrison (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) came off the bench to pass out a game-best five assists.

The Huskies enjoyed a 46-34 rebounding advantage, as Nelson snared nine boards in support of Boone.  Nelson had his most effective game of the campaign with eight points.

UMass was led in scoring by Rashaun Freeman with 19 points, but he was held in check by the Husky defense in the second half, where he was held scoreless until 5:18 was left to play.  Jeff Viggiano added 17 points for the Minutemen.

UConn now will enter the final exam period for the fall semester and return to the court on Sunday, Dec. 18 at the Hartford Civic Center against New Hampshire at 2:00 p.m. That game will be televised by WTXX-TV 20.

POSTGAME QUOTES

UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun

"The game became a struggle for us and I’m not sure why.  I think UMass did a good job with their 2-2-1 to slow it down a little bit, but we had seen that before.  It was a reminder of our Pepperdine game ..."

"We were hurt a little bit by foul trouble."

"We feel we should be a more consistent team.  I think tonight was a good 20-25 minutes for us.  We would like to see us get 40."

"The two freshman point guards tonight acted like freshman point guards.  The 1-2-2 match-up looked to them like a Rubik’s cube that they couldn’t solve."

"But our superior size, quickness and the press, I think, really helped us early.  We got the game into the kind of pace that we wanted."

"Overall, I would like to see more guys play with the energy of the 3 for 11 guy, Ed Nelson, who just plays with a lot of hustle and is happy to playing basketball."

"It wasn’t a stellar performance by us."

"We showed some of our power at times."

On Rudy Gay

"Rudy showed flashes.  I would have liked to have Rudy have 35 tonight….I spent the whole halftime yelling at him…He had a choice of either facing me or UMass and he chose UMass.  In every game he plays in, he’s too good not to be a dominant figure." 

On UMass

"I thought UMass competed well, I thought they worked hard.  I thought Jeff (Viggiano) did a really good job.  If he could play against us every night he would be an All-American."

Rudy Gay

On Josh Boone’s great play in the second half

"He just showed you he’s a gamer.  Real players play through anything.  Coach’s rule two fouls and you’re out in the first half.  He had that set in his mind and Josh didn’t let that settle him down."

On adjusting to UMass' defense

"They were a tough team to play against because they switch their defense every time down the court.  They did a lot of different defenses – box and one, triangle and two.  I think that’s why we were struggling in the beginning because they were kind of unpredictable."

On the difference in halves for you

"It was just getting set in my mind that I’m going to be a dominant player.  In the first half, I was a little hesitant because I missed a couple of shots.  But after that Coach kept telling me to keep shooting.  He always tells me ‘you have to start the game like you end it."

"Denham [Brown] kind of helped me out a little bit because he blocked the man off that was kind of fouling me.  And I just thought about it while I was in the air."

Rashad Anderson

"That’s what I do, instant offense.  That’s what Coach tells me to do – score points because we’re going to need it."

"We came out a bit flat.  But once we got it going there was no turning back."

What was the difference tonight?

"Our pressure defense was very key.  We caused a lot of trouble.  They were throwing the ball out of bounds, and it caused a lot of turnovers for them."

Did you feel like you were ‘feeling it’ especially tonight?

"I always feel that way."

Did their defense cause you a lot of problems?

"They switched a lot of screens on the things we run.  Once we adjusted, it was great from then on."

Ed Nelson

On the bench players

"We have 9-10 players deep who can contribute well so that’s what we are doing."

On the status of the team

"I have no complaints, we are playing flawless right now, we can work more on execution but we are undefeated.  We are going to go ace all of our finals and come back and hopefully keep winning."

On bringing energy off of the bench

"I can’t get frustrated.  Sometimes when I know my time is coming my eyes light up so I just go out there and give full effort.  Tonight was a game where it took to dive head first into a camera, take a charge or dive for loose balls…that gets a team’s momentum going, that brings a good spark.  That’s mainly what I bring to the table, a good spark off of the bench, that’s what I want to do.  I always keep my head up, I’m on the #3 team in the country, I know my role is to come in, play hard and give a spark off of the bench.  I’m not going to lie, I always want to play – I’m a player – So I’m just going to keep fighting hard in practice, then when I get out there I’m going to contribute best I can so I can get more minutes."

On having 9 days off for finals

"I’m getting kind of old so it is very good, I’m happy for these 9 days.  I think we need it as a team.  We are sitting pretty right now, undefeated. Now we just have to do well in class, relax and come back and get ready to go again."

On the club being a little flat tonight

"It kind of seemed like I was at a dead party and I had to go out there and liven it up a bit.  It was a good win, we kept fighting."

Rob Garrison

On his quickness

"I try to play very instinctively and quick at the same team…but also in control.  That’s what Coach wants out of me so I’m going to do it.  Coach told me it starts with me, so when I come off of the bench that’s exactly what I’m looking to do is get this team up and down the court as quick as I can."

Massachusetts Head Coach Travis Ford

"I give UConn a lot of credit.  Watching them on film the last week, and I’ve watched every single game they’ve played this year…they are really, really good.  Obviously extremely well-coached, they understand what they want to get done.  We were beat by a better basketball team tonight.  And I say that because we actually executed most of the things that we wanted to do.  We just didn’t make many shots.  We played the defense we wanted to play, and when we got them in the half court I thought we were fairly effective."

"A lot of times I think we were rushing shots because they recover so quickly, because they are so long."

"I was proud of our team.  We worked hard and we executed what we’ve been working on.  We just didn’t have enough firepower.  And UConn is just a great basketball team. "