Williams Hits Game-Winner To Send No. 2 Huskies Over LSU, 67-66

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HARTFORD, Conn.  (January 7, 2005) – Junior Marcus Williams (Los Angeles, Calif.) hit a runner in the lane with 20 seconds to play to send second-ranked Connecticut to a 67-66 come-from-behind victory over Louisiana State Saturday afternoon before a sellout crowd of 16,294 at the Hartford Civic Center.

The Huskies improve to 12-1 on the season, while the Tigers drop to 8-5.

UConn trailed since the 16:45 mark of the first half before freshman Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) made a jumper in the lane to put the Huskies ahead 57-55 with 6:02 remaining.  Back-to-back baskets by LSU’s Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas put the Tigers back up 59-57 with 4:18 left.  Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.) knotted the contest with a jumper, before Hilton Armstrong (Peekskill, N.Y.) dunked to put UConn back ahead. 

After Tasmin Mitchell tied the score at 61 with 2:47 to go, Armstrong put the Huskies ahead to stay with a lay-up off a pass from Williams.  Williams teardrop runner gave UConn a 67-64 lead before Darrel Mitchell made two free throws to bring LSU within one, at 67-66.  Williams missed two free throws with seven seconds to play before Mitchell’s three-pointer at the buzzer was no good.

The Huskies trailed by as many as 14 points (33-19) in the first half before rallying to cut the deficit at the half to 37-30.

Connecticut was paced by senior Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, Fla.) who recorded his first career double-double with 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.  Gay led the Huskies in scoring with 19 points, while Williams chipped in with 13 and a game-best six assists.  Armstrong finished with 11 points.

The Huskies shot a season-low 33 percent (22 of 67) from the field, but committed just a season-low six turnovers.  The Huskies also rebounded from some poor free throw shooting in the Marquette game to connect on 20 of 25 from the charity stripe, including 15 of 19 after intermission.

Armstrong had four blocks and junior Josh Boone (Mt. Airy, Md.) had three of UConn’s 11 rejections.

Mitchell led LSU with 21 points, while Thomas had 15 points and game-high totals of 13 rebounds and seven blocks.

The Huskies will return to the hardwood on Monday, when they welcome Cincinnati to the Civic Center.  Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. and the contest will be televised by ESPN.

POSTGAME QUOTES

UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun

"Along with the Gonzaga win at Maui, that was probably the best win we’ve had this year….I think the way we won, shooting 30 percent from the field and having to dig out a win in a game where we couldn’t buy a basket – mainly because LSU played very good defense, by the way.  LSU is very talented – probably a little bit young.  Davis is just such a load to handle.  I love the Mitchell kid, the point guard, I think he’s a terrific, terrific basketball player.  Matter of fact, I love the whole team ..."

"I really think they run their stuff exceptionally well.  I thought they got good shots.  I thought that we got better on defense as the game progressed.  I thought we did a terrific job of holding them to 29 percent in the second half, after getting blasted early in the first half.  For whatever reason, the lack of offense discouraged our defense.  Today, we made a step forward, at least for us, in the second half, by understanding that there are other ways to win games than by making three pointers, or getting fast break dunks, etc.  And we found ways to win that basketball game."

"John’s team played great defense.  They’re only going to get better.  Those young kids are absolutely sensational.  I mean, they really are good….They probably have the most deceptive record, eight and five, in the country." 

"When I sit down in another hour or so and watch my Patriots, I’m going to feel very, very good about the way we fought back.  We did that in Maui, but we didn’t do that on Tuesday.  We didn’t fight back."

"I thought we gutted it out."

"Hilton Armstrong had the loudest 11 points I think I’ve ever seen.  Rashad Anderson couldn’t make a basket, but he had 10 rebounds to get a double double.  That’s the toughest I’ve ever seen Rudy Gay play.  Not the best, the toughest.  He was tough." 

UConn's Rashad Anderson

On what today did for them:  "I think we made a big statement as far as being able to grind a good game out and beat a good team.  We still got a lot of work to do."

On what is there to work on:  "Offensively, staying with our offense and running our plays.  Get out to a good start…the last couple of games we got out to a slow start, and I think that will probably be addressed tomorrow in practice…how?...I don’t know…you never know with Coach, but I’m sure he’s going to address it though."

UConn's Rudy Gay

On the crowd impact:  "It is about us, about what we have to do, we’re the team, they’re the crowd…they are going to do what they want to do, but ultimately it is up to us to bring it out.  We have to come out there and perform every day, you can’t worry about if someone is backing you or not."

On what this win means:  "I kind of eases the pain a little bit…I think we were kind of embarrassed the first game against Marquette…now we came out today and really sowed that we can play at this level and also beat a very good LSU team with a lot of post presence and really good guards."

On what there is to work on: "I think making our presence early…we have been letting teams do what they want in the first half or in the beginning of the game…then we come back and do our thing.  Against Marquette we dug a hole too deep sometimes you just can’t get out of it."

UConn's Jeff Adrien

On Hilton Armstrong:  "It is great to have him on our team…he is one of our players of the game.  All of us were helpful, but like coach said, Hilton had one of the loudest 11 points in basketball history in the second half."

On the crowd:  "It was great; this is what I came for.  Hopefully, we will hear it again."

LSU Head Coach John Brady 

"We’ve had several of these, and we’ve only been able to win one, and that was at West Virginia.  We’ve lost five of these by 11 points.  We have some deficiencies, but I like our team.  I continue to encourage our team and tell them to keep getting better because we have played some of the best teams in the country, I feel like, and we’ve played them to the wire."

"We came in here and we took good care of the ball compared to what we usually do.  We had 14 turnovers, we beat them on the boards.  I thought our best players shot most of the balls.  We got to the free throw line 21 times.  We’re not a great free throw shooting team, and it showed.  And they’re not a good free throw shooting team, either, and they gave us two at the end, but they go 20 for 23 at that point, which was what they haven’t done the last couple of games."

"I thought we would get a good shot from them considering what happened at Marquette.  Coach Calhoun does a great job with his team.  It was a good college basketball game.  At the end, we had no time outs, I thought the shot Darrel Mitchell got from a foot behind the arc was as good as we were going to get on the fly.  I’ve seen other teams make those.  We weren’t able to get it, but I thought it was as good a look as we were going to get at the time."

"They beat us, but I think our young team went toe to toe.  There were times in the second half that we had four freshmen on the floor….I don’t know if it’s youth or what it is but we haven’t been able to win too many of these, but we’ve played them."